Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-23
HOW CROFTERS LIVE.
Outside EmplOyments That Add to
the Income of the Croft.
SHALL LANDHOLDINGS THE RULE.
Acres That Might Feed the Hungry Pre-
served for Sportsmen.
THERE'S HOPE, BUT 1T is FAR AWAY
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH


croiters' communities, crofters' homes and
crofters themselves, believe one who passes
some time among them, cannot turn from
them to hls own world of brightness and
progress without genuine sense OF sadness
for their permanent, hopeless condition.
1t is unquestionably true that the
"Crofter's act" of 1886 was a lust and
benefcent measure. "Fair rents have
been almost universally fixed; arrears
impossible of liquidation have been
either wholly Cancelled or largely reduced;
and personal freedom as man,
subject and voter has been es-
tablished. The Crofters' Commission has
already righted countless wrongs to which
the crofter had been subjected for nearly
century and hall; and it may be truthfully
said that all has been done tor this Highland
grounding that ever can be done under the
present land system of Great Britain. Indi-
vidual owners are so few, such vast tracts,
especially in the north and west Of Scot
land, have been permanently transformed
into game preserves, such insignificant aRd
inadequate holdings are in the crofters'
possession under the new order of things,
and communities of these people are so few,
and those so meager in numbers, that better
ment to these Highlanders as a class seems
impossible.
THEIR LOVE OF HOME.
As stated in previous article. the process
of thinning them out of, or their actual ex-
tirpation from, tremendous areas bad been
so thorough by the owners OF Highland es-
tates. that few crofters were left to receive
benefits. The tenacity with which. despite
all sacrifice and terror, these few clung to
their mountain homes, is a wonderful tribute
to love of homeland, which, in hardy race
like the Highland crofters, could have been
turned to infinitely better account by Scot
land, and even Scottish landlords, than
could the rentals from sportsmen tenants.
This sentiment is SO strong and deep one
to-day among Scottish people OF all sections
that there is noticeable growing and stub
born demand for Gland division" ''land re-
FORM" and even in some quarters for
naturalization of the land"
Many intelligent crofters seem confident
that some form of legislation will some time
give them adequately large holdings. An
idea is certainly gaining ground that at
least sportsmen will 20 out, and sheep rails
ing return. Sentiment is not wholly re-
sponsible for this. The first experiment by
the great Highland land holders, after the
barbarous clearances of the Highlanders,
was In sheep raising. This was successful,
and in consequence the clearances were
largely condoned by a most important class
in Scotland; men who assist in making and
unmaking Parliaments. These were the
lowland farmers.
INFLUENCE OF LowLAND FARMERS.
Since the British sportsmen got possession
of the northern aud western glens, High
land sheep have become practically extinct.
Therefore what the Highland estate owners
have gained by game, the lowland farmers
have immeasurably more than lost. The
latter have no pity for the crofter on his
own account, but they know in a direct.
hard-headed way that he and his collie dog
are the best shepherds in the world. So
these and some other pressing economic
forces are gradually blending the "crofter
question" and the Gland question" in Scot
land, and providing an economic question
which may at last reach that form of legis-
lation which will break down the now in
visible yet infexible walls of these great
Highland estates, and cause the repeopling
of their grand mountain sides and glens.
But that can hardly come to the grave, sad
eyes of the crofter who now lives. And 1t Is
this man whose condition, environment and
home life have set out TO describe.
Whether he lives in the same cabin where
his forefathers lived before him, or is one
who has been removed from the old home
to some new and worthless patch of ground
for the larger liberty of deer, he is never the
possessor as tenant of more than 80 acres of
land, while nine-tenths of the entire class do
not occupy more than five. In some in
stances he has an ''outrun" or common
grazing" with others, where from 20 to 80
sheep and two or three cows may be grazed,
and when this is so, he is considered very
we'll of.
SOIL AT HIS DISPOSAL.
czl l.. =, - - Al
exception, and ordinarily his miserable
patch of soil, of from, say, two to six acres,
scarcely affords him the barest means of
livelihood. For this tiny croft he pays an
average rental of 96 under the new stair
rent" system, and under the old track rent"
regime he tried to pay, but never paid, from
210 to Els and 920. With the certain un-
certainties of Hig bland climate in mind,
no one can for a moment believe it possible
for the crofter to pay even the reduced rent
and sustain himself and family from the
results of his labor upon the soil alone.
1 believe it would be truthful assertion
that the croft in no single instance ever
sustained the crofter. 1t will not sustain
him under the 'fair rent" system of to-
day.
The landlord now gets nearly the utmost
limit of what the soil itself can produce.
The salvation of the crofter can only be at
tanned by providing him with larger crofts,
so that the labor OF himself and family NAV
be concentrated where most profitable re-
suits can obtain; or rentals for the beggarly
patch he is forced to exist upon must be re-
duced to almost nominal sum. A pros
porous peasantry is impossible where the
energies of the family are dissipated in a
nalf dozen different vocations to simply
pay rent that thatch may be kept over the
heads of the very old and very young of the
family.
HOW HE MANAGES TO LIVE.
Briefly, that is the condition OF the crof-
ter, and it is all that is, or ever has been,
the matter with him. 70 merely exist he
has been forced into becoming fisher, kelp-
gatherer, poacher; anything to live. His
wife becomes fisher, "gutter" or dresser of
herrings at the sea side, mussle-gatherer,
or does any tortuous labor possible to add
pound or shilling to the store for meeting
the inexorable demand of the rent. The
daughters are forced from home into service,
and their altered condition and needs de-
pr1ye them of both their love of the High
land home and the power to bestow more
than pittance upon its keeping. The sons
become gillies to Highland sportsmen with
a few weeks of fdemoralizing luxury and ten
months OF idleness and unrest; or better,
though still bad, are crowded to the towns
to further impoverish labor there; or perhaps
in the end, best, reach Canada or the States.
where. for years the little saved beyond q
bare living finds its way back to the crofter
father and eventually to the landlord Tor
rent.
As rule the oldest son marries and re-
mains at home. He seldomIhas the inclina-
tiou or the means to "hive off" and set up
housekeeping on another croft, and besides