Oor ain folk times

CO-OPERATIVE FARMING 219
lot nowadays of co-operative farming. Well, more
than fifty years ago my father practised it with success.
When he had reclaimed a stretch of stony moorland
from its pristine unproductiveness, he let it out to any
villagers who might wish to cultivate a portion suited
to their requirements ; but on conditions which, while
attractive enough to the villager, were yet ultimately
profitable to the tenant-farmer, in this case my father.
Thus any weaver, for instance, or cottager in the village
was allowed to take a crop of potatoes from the land
simply on condition that he thoroughly manured the
plot, kept it clean from weeds, and removed the stones.
Well, there were dozens of poor people in the village
who were very glad to collect dung from the market
rnuir, wheel out their ashes and house refuse, and
fertilise their plots with these composts. The children,
in their leisure intervals, were set to work to pick up
the stones with which they filled the open drains made
by Geordie and his assistants ; and in this way, by the
end of two or three years, the barren whinny muir
had been transformed into rich arable fields, from which
splendid crops were obtained. Afterwards, the liberal
application of lime and bone-dust enabled my father
to raise crops that, while they were the envy of all the
surrounding farmers, were an object-lesson inspiring
them to go and do likewise. In this way the old
minister was undoubtedly doing most valuable educa-
tive work in the midst of his parish. Every Saturday,
too, for many many years, he allowed Geordie or one of
his boys to take in the cart to Brechin and bring out coals,
or lime, or such heavy bulk goods as could not well be
brought out by the parcel cart of the postman. These