The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-16 00:00:00

AN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT.
(From The Times)

Four years ago the Duke of Sutherland projected a
scheme of land improvement on his Sutherland estates
of a bold character. He proposed to bring under
cultivation by steam power 2,000 acres of wild and
useless moorland, lay it out in sizeable farms, build
farm steadings, lay down the first crop, and then, if
the experiment should succeed, extend the operations
by taking in other wastes, and offering the new farms
on terms which would bring them within the reach of
intelligent and enterprising agriculturists. The project
was described in The Times soon after the first opera-
tions was commenced, and its hopeful progress was
afterwards noticed but sufficient time having now
elapsed to prove the value of the experiment by a first
and second cropping of the first land reclaimed, we
have again examined the scheme of improvements and
an now show its practical results.
The first piece of moor selected is on the north bank
of Loch Shin, about four miles from the Lairg Station
of the Sutherland-Caithness section of the Highland
Railway. Leaving that station and walking west-
wards along the road which runs from Lalrg to Tongue,
on the west coast you see nothing, after passing a few
arable and sheep pasture farms, but miles on miles of
moorland with an undulating surface, much of it in
deep moss, but more of it in stony soil with bottom of
sandstone grit and blue clay, the surface being over-
grown with heath, but without either food for sheep
or cover for game. From the swampy and stony
character of the moor, it was utterly impossible to
bring almost any portion of this land under cultiva-
tion by ordinary appliances, including even the com-
mon steam plough. But a plough was constructed of
a special character, and has since been improved, by
means of which 1,500 acres have already been taken in,
about 1,200 of which are utider crop. This land has
been laid out in four farms, excellent steadings, with
all modern improvements, have been built, and the
fields of from 60 to 70 acres have been drained, fenced,
and made accessible by good roads, while neat and
commodious farm-houses and labourers' cottages have
been erected, the whole of this costing about £3O an
acre.

The first farm consists of about 400 acres which have
now for two years been under crop. Last year the re-
turns of cereals and green crops were above the aver-
age, and this year, which has been very unproductive
on the beat cultivated/arms in tbe North, as compared
with the yield of last year, the Sutherland farm gives
an average crop of oats, a fair crop of barley, more
than an average growth of turnips, an excellent crop of
hay, with good fields of potatoes. Last week the Duke
took a party of friends over the improved land, some
of whom had seen it in the waste, and they were all
agreeably surprised to see such unmistakable proof of
the success of this great experiment. Here the reapers
were gathering the ripened corn fully a week before
the average time of harvest in the far North of Scot-
land. There a number of fine short-horned cattle were
browsing in a field from which that huge stack of ha
had been gathered which was standing in the barn-
yard; while yonder, on a rugged rise of terribly
rough moorland, two steam-engines, stationed
400 yards apart, are alternately dragging the
plough, which rests in a frame on four horizontal
cylinders, and tears its way through everything, its
revolving disc mounting the huge boulders that lie in
its way, leaving them to be thrown up by the coulter
where moveable, or afterwards blown to pieces by gun-
cotton. Twelve such engines are in sight, some taking
in other fields, others harrowing and cleaning the land
of the boulder atones brought to the surface by a most
ingeniously-constructed sledge which, when loaded,
carries four or five tons, every load being carted to the
end of the furrows in readiness to be used as founds,
tions for roads, the erection of fences, and to some ex-
tent for the building of the cottages and steaclings.
Such a sight as this is worth a visit from the directors
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, for
nowhere can they find a more suggestive or encouraging
demonstration of the power of mind over matter, or of
science as the life and hope of agricultural progress.
It would be a mistake, however, to infer from this that
cereals and green crops only are contemplated by this
scheme of land improvement. Every farm has an out-
field as well as an infield, has surface-drained land for
sheep pasture as well as the hill side, so that provision
is Made for every kind of agricultural produce—corn
from the plough, cattle from the field, and sheep from
the mountain and the plain.
One of the greatest drawbacks to successful cultiva-
tion in these parts has been the want of defence from
the cold north and north-east winds which sweep over
the moors. Where trees have been planted and
attended to the crops have been protected, and, in
view of this, the Duke of Sutherland has already
planted hundreds of acres in connexion with this scheme
of improvements, so that in a few years the district
will be well-wooded, as it is well-watered, while the
drainage cannot fail ultimately to improve the tem-
perature, the rainfall of which already contrasts
favourably with that of the agricultural land in the
upper district of Lairg, and is about equal to the
temperature in Lancashire, as shown by the rain gauge
and tables kept at the Duke's luncheon-room on the
middle farm.

But the question naturally arises, how are these im-
provements to be maintained, and how are the new
farms to be supplied with manure, and good drainage
provided for other lands to be reclaimed? The answer
lies in the fact that the estate abounds with limestone,
that there are coals at Brora, about twenty miles
distant, and a brick and drain-tile manufactory there,
which is at present supplying the Lairg farms with
80,000 drain-pipes a month. Besides coals for burning
the limestone and supplying the engines at the brick-
fields, about 2,000 tons of peat fuel have been cut out of
native mosses this year, and are piled up in various
parts of the district, which will be amply sufficient to
feed the engine fires until next summer, when a fresh
supply can be cut. The local resources are, indeed,
most abundant; and seeing that the markets both of
Scotland and England are available by railway, while
lime may be easily brought from the west coast, where
the limestone is most plentiful, there will be every-
thing to hand which farmers settling here can require,
and with such advantages, and hundreds of thousands
of acres of land thus reclaimable on this estate, the
public, as well as the proprietor and farmers, will, it is
confidently believed, profit by the experiment.
Leaving the agricultural improvements, we turn to
the Duke's coalfield, and the work doing there. The
coalfield is at Brora, close to the railway, and was
opened about four years am For some time the coals
were found to be impregnated with sulphur, but a new
seam has been struck of very superior quality, and as
this seam runs inland, and is about three feet and a half
thick i
, there is good reason to believe that t will yield
a good supply. Close by the coalfield and in connenpn
with it, the Duke has erected extensive brick and tile
works, and with steam machinery to pulverize the
sandstone rock, as well as to work the clay which
is here most abundant, an extensive trade may be
carried on, and is likely to be highly remunerative. It
is most interesting to see the labourers bringing their
barrowfuls of grit and stone and clay, and tumbling
them into the grinders, and to observe with what ease
they are pounded and ground, and then ran out to be
mixed and pressed into the mould ready for being baked,
and finally dried in the kiln. All this goes on with
such perfect ease and order that we can hardly realize
the fact as we look on it that we are in the Highlands
of Scotland, where but a few years ago there was
nothing to be seen but the rugged grandeur of mountain
rcenery, sheep nibbling on the hill sides, and a few
fishermen crofters one day fishing in the deep and the
next digging the croft with the spade, and all but out
of the range of a higher civilization.
The next moor which is marked off for improvement
and cultivation is in the Strath of Kildonan, where
there are many thousands of acres reclaimable, and
where gold, but in unremunerative quantities
was recently found. Two thousand acres are
here also to be laid out ir..o four farms. and
the same process will be carried forward as at Lairg.
Two of the Duke's farms there are already let, and
the others as they are completed will be offered, we
believe, in the public market. Other proprietors,
through whose property the railway has been made,
are to some extent following the Duke of Sutherland's
example, and there is reason to hope that, if capital
and commercial enterprise'can be brought to bear on
this field of industry, immense tracts of other moorland
may yet be brought into profitable cultivation. Be that as
it may, the spirited example of the Duke of Sutherland
Is worthy of the -highest commendation, not only for
the capital and scientific skill which he has brought to
bear on the project, but for the personal attention and
encouragement which he has given to the carrying of
it in into effect.