The Shetland Islands are upwards of a hundred in number,
varying in size from the Mainland, which is about seventy miles in
length and thirty at its greatest breadth, to small rocks not even
affording pasturage to sheep. The outlines of all the islands, as
shown on the accompanying map are very irregular, long bays or
voes indenting them so deeply that no point is more than three
miles from the sea. The country is hilly, but none of the [Page 2
rpt.] hills are very lofty. Twenty-eight of the islands are inhabited;
some of the smaller islands containing only two, or in some cases
only one family. The population in 1861 was 31,670, viz. 18,617
females, and 13,053 males. The population in 1871 was 31,605,
viz. 18,525 females, and 13,080 males. The census is taken at a
time of the year when many men who are sailors in the merchant
service are absent from their homes, which they visit once a year
or oftener. At the last census there were 6,494 families, 5,740
inhabited houses, 220 vacant houses, and 10 houses building.
The Agricultural Returns for Great Britain for 1871 state the
number of occupiers of land in Shetland, from whom returns
have been obtained, at 3992, occupying on an average thirteen
acres each. The total acreage under all kinds of crops, bare,
fallow, and grass, is given as 50,454 acres in 1870, and 50,720 in
1871, of which, in the latter year, 11,626 acres were under corn
crops, 3,493 under green crops (2,909 being potatoes), 522 under
clover and grasses under rotation, and 33,227 permanent pasture,
meadow, or grass not broken up in rotation, exclusive of heath
or mountain land. The total number of horses returned to the
Statistical Department, as on 25th June 1871, was 5,354; of cattle
21,735; of sheep, 86,834; and of pigs, 5,251.
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