H u s b a n d r y .
between thefe rocks. 'The great fpecies is taken on Du hirtm
great rock about a mile round, ten leagues to the weft ; reported!
be the neareft of any to America.
Oranfay is three miles long: the'fouth part low and iandy-I
reft high and rocky. Is divided from Colonfay by a narrow fo
dry at low water. This ifland is a fingle farm, yielding bl
flax, and much potatoes; which are'left in their beds thewhJ
winter, covered with fea-wrack, to protedt them from the froft, T
manure is Ihell fand and wrack : the laft laid on grafs will prod
but one crop«; on corn-land it will produce two. Sixty milch toj
are kept here: and this year eighty head o f cattle were fold from I
ifland at three pounds a-piece : fome butter and cheefe are alfoJ
ported.
This ifland is rented by Mr. Mac-Neile, brother to the
prietor of both iflands. The rent is not more than forty poundl
year: yet according to the cuftom o f the ifles, the farm employ*
number of fervants, viz. a chief labourer, who has fifty M il*
year, and a ftone of meal per week : a principal herdfman, v;M
wages are grafs for two cows, and meal fufficient for his familfl
a cow-herd who has twenty-four ihillings a year and Ihoes:
tinder him, whofe wages are about fixteen Ihillings: and a caJ
herd, who is allowed ten ihillings. Befides thefe are twooM
men, called from their employ Aoireanmn, who have the chara
of cultivating a certain portion of land; and alfo overfeeing *]
cattle it fupports; thefe have grafs for two milch cows, and fl
iheep; and the tenth lheaf, the produce of the ground, and I
many potatoes as they chufe to plant. The maid fervants as]
houfekeeper, at three pounds a year: a principal dairy 1*1
twell
Lelve marks Scots, each half year : and five other women, five
marks.
I Crofs the found at low water, and enter the ifland of
twelve miles long, three broad, full o f rocky hills, running tranf-
tverfely, with variety o f pretty meandring vales full o f grafs, and
■10ft excellent for pafturage. Even the hills have plenty o f her-
lage mixed with the rock. The vallies want inclofures and
Brant woods, the common defeft o f all the Hebrides: They yield
Bear and potatoes, much o f the firft is ufed in diftillation, to the
lery ftarving o f the iflanders, who are obliged to import meal for
peir fubfiftence. About two hundred and twenty head of cattle
ire annually exported at 3/. each. In 1736 the price was only
pve and twenty ihillings ; but the rife commenced two years
Bfter the rebellion. Yet even this advance does not enrich the
ieople of this pretty ifland, for their whole profit is exhaufted
in the purchafe of bread, which their own induftry ought to
ipply.
■ Oats are fown here about the middle o f April, and yield three
pda half. Bear produces eight fold. Forty or fifty tuns o f kelp
iirt annually made in both iflands. The materials are colledted on
ahe ihores in the middle of April, and the kelp exported in Auguft, at
pe rate of 3 /, 10 s. or 4 /. per tun.
■ Their poverty prevents them from ufing the very means Pro-
paence has given them of raifing a comfortable fubfiftence. They
| ave a good foil, plenty o f limeftone, and fufficient quantity
N n of
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