“My dear Sir,—I duly received your very kind note referring to the
‘notice to quit’ to Lord Lonsdale’s farmers in West Cumberland, and
have delayed to reply till I had made special inquiries, and find that,
as a rule, these tenants have no leases, but have held their farms from
year to year only.
“Formerly, I am told, some had leases; but as these expired they were
not renewed, and the supposition now is that all such have run out, and
that all now as yearly tenants have had the notice given them
simultaneously.
“The notice is clearly given to allow a re-valuation to be made; and
when the new rents are arranged, it is expected that leases will then
be granted, though it is plain to be seen that all the increased
prosperity that the prosperity of recent years of the coal and iron
industries have caused to farming, may thus be secured to the
landholder; and the farmers, with or without leases, but with higher
rents, may be left to bear alone the ebb of the tide that is evidently
on the turn; and in any or every case, the general public—the consumers
of these farmers’ produce—will have to pay the extra rent, whatever it
may be, that Lord Lonsdale may see fit to lay upon the land. [73]
“I have been studying this matter—the increase of land-rents—for many
years, and consider it is very much to blame for the present high
prices of all land produce, and the distress amongst the poorest of our
population, as well as being a great hindrance to the carrying out of
any schemes that have for their object the application of more of our
own labour to our own soil. In a letter to my son a few weeks ago, I
ventured to say that the man who was the first to demonstrate by actual
experiment that English soil could be made to double or quadruple its
produce, would earn the name of a new Columbus, in that he had
discovered another America at our own doors. This son, my oldest,
having shown a turn for mathematics, I was induced to send to
Cambridge, my hope being that a good education might fit him to solve
some of the problems that are so pressing us for solution (and which I
had been essaying myself in the pamphlet on ‘Labour and Capital’); and
as he now, on the completion of his second term, holds the second place
in his year at St. John’s, there is a hope that he may take a good
place in the mathematical tripos for 1878; and yet, since we got
introduced to your books—two years ago—both he and I think he had best,
so soon as he completes his course, go into farming; and hence the
reference to growing crops that appeared in his letter last week, and
which I am most happy to find has met with your approbation.” (Yes;—and
I trust with higher approbation than mine.)
IV. The following paragraphs from a county paper gladden me
exceedingly, by taking from me all merit of originality in any part of
the design of the operations of St. George’s Company, while they prove
to the most incredulous not only the practicability, but the assured
good of such operations, already, as will be seen, carried to
triumphant results on a private gentleman’s estate.
The ‘Agricultural Gazette’ gives, as one of a series of papers on
“Noteworthy Agriculturists,” a sketch of Mr. William Mackenzie,
Achandunie, who, acting for Mr. Matheson, has carried out so many
improvements on the Ardross estates. The sketch is in the form of an
autobiography, which, as the ‘Gazette’ remarks, carries with it a most
pleasant impression of directness and simplicity of character no less
than of industry, energy, and success. It is accompanied by a portrait
of Mr. Mackenzie, which his friends will recognize as a fair likeness.
Mr. Mackenzie states that he was born in 1806, in the parish of
Urquhart, Ross-shire, where his ancestors had resided for many
generations. His father, who occupied a small farm, died about five
years ago at the advanced age of ninety. In 1824, he (Mr. William
Mackenzie) entered as an apprentice at Belmaduthy [74] Gardens, and
after serving there three years, removed to the nurseries of Dickson
and Co., Edinburgh, where he remained only a few months. He then went
to the Duke of Buccleuch’s gardens at Dalkeith, serving under Mr.
Macdonald, who was in advance of his time as a practical gardener.
There he assisted in carrying out the improvements which were made in
the gardens and pleasure-grounds. New ranges of hothouses and a fine
conservatory were erected, into which the hot-water system of heating
was, it is believed, first introduced in Scotland. Next Mr. Mackenzie
assisted in laying out gardens and grounds at Barcaldine, the seat of
Sir Duncan Campbell, in Argyllshire; and coming in 1835 to Rosehaugh,
as head-gardener, forester, and superintendent of estate works, he
carried out the construction of new gardens, both at Rosehaugh and
Kinlochluichart, and the remodelling of private grounds and approaches.
These large gardens at Barcaldine and Rosehaugh were made with great
care, especially in selecting and preparing the soil for the wall and
vinery borders, so that after the lapse, in the one case of thirty
years, and in the other of forty years, no decay or canker has appeared
among the fruit trees. [75]
“In 1847 Mr. Matheson commenced the improvements at Ardross, the
property of Alexander Matheson, Esq., M.P. for the county of Ross.
“Ardross proper is surrounded by high hills, and with trifling
exceptions was in a state of nature, the whole surface of the district
being covered with coarse grass and heather, stunted birches, morass or
quagmire, and studded with granite boulders drifted from the hills. The
place was under sheep and a few black cattle, and, owing to the
coarseness of the herbage the cattle were subject to red water. The
tenants’ houses were mere hovels, without chimneys, and with little or
no glass in the windows. The population of the district of Ardross
proper was, in 1847, only 109 souls; and now, in 1875, the population
on the same area is 600, and the number of children attending school is
about 140.
“In giving a summary of the improvements, we will begin with the
pleasure-grounds. [76] They extend to about 800 acres. In forming them,
waggons on rails were used for two years in removing knolls, forming
terraces, and filling up gullies. The banks of the river and of the
burns flowing through the grounds have been planted with upwards of a
hundred different varieties of the finest and hardiest ornamental trees
that could be procured, from the tulip-tree to the evergreen oak, and
from the native pine to the Wellingtonia. Evergreen shrubs cover about
25 acres in detached portions on the banks of the river which flows
immediately beneath the castle, as well as on the banks of two romantic
burns, with beautiful cascades, and in ravines. The garden is enclosed
with a brick-lined wall, and so boggy was the site that the foundation
of the wall is more than 6 feet below the sills of some of the doors.
The south side is enclosed by a terrace wall 12 feet high, and the
north wall is covered with glass, which includes vineries,
conservatory, and orchard houses, besides a range of pits, all heated
with water. The soil of the garden was prepared and carted a
considerable distance, [77] as there was none to be got on the site.
“Upwards of 5000 acres of moor ground have been planted, chiefly with
Scotch fir and larch, the thinnings of which are now being shipped for
pit props, the plants of the oldest woods only having been taken out of
the nursery in 1847.
“The extent of arable land may be best explained by stating that there
are twenty-seven farms with thrashing mills, paying rents from £50 to
£800 each; and upwards of a hundred ploughs are used in cultivating the
lands improved. The steam plough is also to be seen at work on some of
the farms.” (St. George does not, however, propose entertaining the
curious spectator in this manner.) “Cattle reared on the reclaimed land
have taken prizes at the Highland Society’s Shows, and at all local
shows; and for cereals and green crops, they will bear a favourable
comparison with any part of Scotland.
“At one of the detached properties, great care had to be taken, and
engineering skill used, in the drainage. Recently a low-lying part of
the lands, a mile and a half long by three-quarters broad, was a
mixture of the lower stratum of peaty bog, marsh, and spouty sand,
charged with ochrey-coloured water, impregnated with sulphur and
saltpetre. Attempts made by former occupants to drain this place were
fruitless, from want of depth and proper outfall. We found all the
pipes in their drains completely choked by deposited ochrey matter. The
whole subsoil was running sand. In order to make the drainage perfect,
a main leading drain was made, 800 yards long, and in some places 8
feet deep, in which were laid ‘spigot and faucet,’ vitrified pipes 10
to 15 inches in diameter, jointed with cement to prevent sand from
getting in, with junctions to receive pipes of smaller sizes, from 10
inches down to 6 inches. Minor drains are from 3½ to 4 feet deep, with
tiles of 2 to 4 inch bore, the smaller sizes having collars on the
joints. Large stone cisterns are formed to receive the silt, and
ventilating shafts with iron gratings are built to give circulation of
air. By these means the whole flat is drained effectually, and where
bog rushes were the prevailing produce, crops of the richest wheat now
grow. The stunted herbage and water were so poisonous that black cattle
were known to have turned gray in a season (?). [78]
“More than fifty miles of private roads have been made, and twelve
miles of walks through the pleasure-grounds. One walk is six miles
continuous, along the windings of fine scenery of the Alness. Upwards
of forty miles of stone dykes and eighty of wire fences have been
erected, enclosing the arable land and plantations.
“For twenty years from three to four hundred men were employed; two
hundred of them lived in a square of barracks for nearly eleven years,
and so orderly were they that the services of a policeman were never
required. There are still a number of men employed, but the
improvements are now coming to a close.
“All the assistance I had in the engineering and planning was that of a
young man only seventeen years old when the works were begun, and we
never had occasion to employ a man for a single day re-doing work.
“I may further add that I have now the great pleasure of seeing my
liberal employer reletting all his farms on the Ardross estate to the
same tenants, on a second nineteen years’ lease,” (at increased rents,
of course, my friend?) “the second leases having been renewed between
two and three years before the expiry of the previous leases, and none
of the farms were ever advertised.
“I cannot leave this part of the present brief sketch without noticing
a feature in the important work so successfully carried out by my
enlightened employer, and one which cannot fail to be a source of great
satisfaction to himself. Among the first things he did was to establish
a school in the district, with a most efficient teacher, and the result
is that sons of the small farmers and labourers are now in respectable
positions in various walks of life. They are to be found in the
capacities of gardeners, artizans, and merchants, students of law,
medicine, and divinity. One of them, Donald Ross, carried the Queen’s
prize of £100 in the University, and is now one of Her Majesty’s
Inspectors of Schools. Another is the chief constable of the county.
Others are in the colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and America, all
doing well; and out of hundreds working for themselves, to my
knowledge, not one has gone astray. [79]
“I will now advert to the improvements on the west coast estates. A
mansion-house was built in the parish of Kintail, with pleasure-grounds
and gardens, the former being chiefly reclaimed from the sea. Two
islands, which were surrounded by water 11 feet deep on the shore side,
are now part of the lawn, the intervening spaces having been filled up
by the removal of a hill of rotten rock. This house is let to a
shooting tenant. The garden is excellent for fruit, including peaches,
nectarines, and apricots, which come to perfection. At Duncraig,
recently, a new mansion-house has been built, with all the modern
appliances. New gardens have also been made at Duncraig, the site of
which was originally a narrow gully running between high ridges of
rock. The gardens are upwards of two acres within the walls. The soil
is composed of virgin soil and turfy loam, the whole having been carted
a considerable distance. The gardens were completed in 1871, and the
different kinds of fruit trees, including pears, peaches, and apricots,
are now bearing.
“Duncraig is rarely to be surpassed in scenery and beauty. The view is
extensive, embracing the Cuchullin hills in Skye,” (etc., etc.) “There
are two fresh-water lakes within the grounds, one covering thirty-seven
acres, and the other about sixty acres, abounding with excellent trout
and char. One of them supplies Duncraig House with water, having a fall
of about 300 feet. The pipe in its course supplies the gardens; the
livery stables and laundry have also connections for applying hose in
cases of fire.
“The conformation of the ground is a mingling of winding valleys with
high rock hills, on which grow natural wood, such as birch, oak, ash,
and mountain ash. Several of the valleys have been improved and laid
out under permanent pasture, making the landscape, as seen from the
front of the house, with wood, rock, and winding grassy bay, very
picturesque.
“There are twelve miles of private drives and walks—miles of them cut
out of the solid rock, and in some places in the face of precipices 100
feet sheer up above the sea. A home-farm is in course of being improved
at Achandarroch, a mile south of Duncraig House.”
The ‘Gazette’ adds: Mr. Mackenzie himself farms some of the land which
he has reclaimed, and nowhere probably is there a better example of
what is possible in the way of agricultural improvement under a
northern climate. Excellent crops of barley, clover, wheat, and roots
are grown where nothing but a marshy wilderness once existed. Here
obviously are the circumstances and the experience which should guide
and stimulate the efforts of estate owners and improvers in the way of
the reclamation of land which is now waste and worthless.
“Holme Head, Carlisle,
“July 6th, 1875.
“Dear Sir,—When I read the number of ‘Fors’ for last April, and came to
your account of the rose-leaf cutting bees, I recollected that I had
seen one of these bees making its fragmentary cell in a hole in a brick
wall, and that I had often seen the remnants of the cut leaves; but I
never had a chance of watching them when at work till last week; and
thinking the result may be interesting to you, and may correct the
omission you refer to at the foot of page 104 in the April ‘Fors,’ I
take the liberty to send them to you.
“I had the opportunity of seeing a great many bees—often half a dozen
together—at work upon a solitary dog-rose in front of a house at a
small watering-place (Silloth), and I observed that they cut various
shapes at different times. I picked off a great many of the leaves that
they had been at, and send you herewith one or two specimens. I find
that these have occasionally cut through the midrib of the leaf; but
this is a rare exception. I found they carried the cuttings to some
adjoining sand-hills, where they had bored small holes in the sand; and
in these they built their leaf-cells. The pollen in these cells was not
purple, but yellow, and may have been gathered from the Hawkweed which
covers the banks where their nests are made.
“Since we came home, I have found some more leaves in my own garden
similarly cut. The leaves I find to be cut in this way are the rose,
French bean, and young laburnum.
“Yours truly,
“W. Lattimer.”