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Though Scotland is a country of great estates this circumstance possesses less significance from the agticultcral than from the historical standpoint. The excessive size of the properties may to some extent be accounted for by the fact that most of the surface is so mountainous and unproductive as to be unsuitable for division into smaller estates, but two other causes have also co-operated, namely, first, the wide territorial authority of such Lowland families as the Scotts and Douglases, and such Highland clans as the Campbells of Argyll and Breadalbane, the Murrays of Athol, and the duke of Sutherland; and secondly, the stricter law of entail introduced in 1685. Thus the largest estates remain in the hands of the old hereditary families. The almost absolute power formerly wielded by the landlords, who within their own territories were lords of regality, hindered independent agricultural enterprise, and it was not till after the abolition of hereditable jurisdictions.
In 1748 that agiiculture made real progress. The Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture, founded in 1723, ceased to exist after the rebellion of 1745, and the introduction of new and improved methods, where not the result of private energy and sagacity, was chiefly due to the Highland and Agricultural Society, established in 1784. Further stimulus was also supplied by the high prices that obtained during the Napoleonic wars, and, in spite of periods of severe depression since then, the science of agriculture has continued to advance. The system of nineteen year leases had proved distinctly superior to the system of yearly tenancy so general in England, although prejudicially affected by customs and conditions which, for a considexable time, seriously strained the relations between landlord and tenant. But the abolition of the law of hypothec in 1879 under which the landlord had a lien for rent upon the produce of the land, the cattle and sheep fed on it, and the live stock and implements used in husbandry - the Ground Game Act of 1880, the several Agricultural Holdings Acts, and the construction of light railways improved matters and established a better under standing.
The period of general depression which set in before 1885 was surmouuted in Scotland with comparatively little trouble. A large amount of capital was lost by tenants, and a few farms were thrown here and there upon the landlords hands, but in no district was rent extinguished or were holdings abandoned. The sub-commissioners who reported to the Royal Commission on Agriculture in 1895 found nearly everywhere a demand, sometimes competition for farms, persisting throughout the crisis. In Danti, Nairn, Elgin and several southern counties rent reductions varied from 25 to 30%. In Perth, Fife, Forfar and Aberdeen the average was 30% but in nearly all the counties, towards the end at least of the period of depression, the coexistent demand and competition for farms were observable. In some districts in the west rents tell very little; in others, especially shrep-farming districts, the fall was very severe.
In Ayrshire the figure varied from 5 to 20%; for Dumfriesshire 16% was given as a fair average, but here too the distressed farmer was compelled to admit that if he gave up his holding there were others ready to take it. Afterwards, owing to the increased attention given to stock fattening and dairying, and to a rise in prices, farming reached a condition of equilibrium, and the most noticeable residuum of the period of depression was the large intrusion of the butcher and grazier class into the farmer class proper. Caithness-shire was declared to be the
greatest suferer by the period of depression; rents fell in that county by 30 to 50% on large farms, 20 to 30% on medium, and 10 to 60% on small farms. Nevertheless, the decline in the value of land was serious. According to the reports of the Inland Revenue Commissioners, the gross income derived from the ownership of lands in Scotland was returned in 1879-1880 at
£7,769,303. After that year a continuous fall set in, and in 1901-1902 the amount returned was only £5,911,836 a drop in twenty-five years of £1,857,467. These figures refer to land, whether cultivated or not, including ornamental grounds, gardens attached to houses when exceeding one acre in extent tithe-rent charge commuted under the Lands Commutation Acts, farm-houses and farm-buildings. The crofters of the Highlands and islands had their grievances also. During the first half of the 19th century wholesale clearances had been effected in many districts, and the crofters were compelled either to emigrate or to crowd into areas already congested, where, eking out a precarious living by following the fisheries, they led a hard and miserable existence. At last after agitation and discontent had become rife, government appointed a royal commission to inquire into the whole question in 1883. It reported next year, and in 1886 fhe Crofters Holdings Act was passed. Amending statutes of succeeding years added to the commissioners powers of fixing fair rents and cancelling arrears, the power of enlarging crofts and common grazings. Since then political agitation had practically died out, though the material condition of the class had not markedly improved, except where, with government aid, crofter fishermen had been enabled to buy better boats; but in some districts even in the island of Lewis, substantial houses have been built. After the passing of the act (1886) the Crofters Commission in 15 years considered applications for rent and revaluation of holdings which amounted to £82,790 and fixed the fair rent at £61,233 or an annual reduction of £21,557 off arrears of rent amounting to £184,962 they cancelled £124,180 and also assigned 48,949 acres in enlargement of holdings. Under the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act of 1897, £35,000 a year was devoted within certain districts of Argyll, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Sotherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, to assisting migration, improving the breeds of live stock, building piers and boatslips, making roads and bridges, developing home industries, etc. |
