The book Arran; - Cook Clan

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172 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
are only beginning, in the second half of the century, to edge
their way into Scottish agriculture. For these conditions
were common to the whole country. Rents were absurdly
small, but then the total produce also was absurdly small.
Much scorn has been poured upon this mode of working
the land, and it is easy to enumerate its defects, which after
all do not so much pertain to the co-operative agriculture
as to the general backwardness of the industry. It was a
mode that suited tenants with little capital. The serious
handicap is exposed in another direction, and better accounts
for the stagnation of effort. ' The succeeding tenants,'
observes the traveller, ' generally find the ground little
better than a caput mortuum (' a state of death ') ; and for
this reason, should they at the expiration of the lease leave
the lands in a good state, some avaricious neighbours would
have the preference in the next setting, by offering a price
more than the person who had expended part of his substance
in enriching the farm could possibly do. This induces them
to leave it in the original state.' ^ The kindly tenancies
of the fifteenth century implied no such handicap; competitive
tenancies brought a limited tenure and no com-
pensation for improvements. The results we see.
Whatever might be said in condemnation of the character
of the farms and the inadequacy of their product, the character
of the people afforded no evidence of degeneracy.
That the stock was a healthy one is recorded from independent
quarters. They enjoy a good state of health,'
' Pennant's Tour, p. 176. Cf. what Ramsay of Ochtertyre, an improving Perthshire
landlord, says of his own district under similar conditions: 'Though hy no
means deficient in industry which would make a speedy return, they (the tenants) laid
their account that any extraordinary exertion or outlay on their part would, in the
long run, redound as much to their master's proiitas their own, and they had no mind
to work for him. They therefore had a system of their own, founded on long
experience, and suited to small capitals and tacks for nineteen years. From this they
were unwilling to deviate, unless for some self-evident advantage ; and with all its
defects it is not easy to figure one by which the same quantity of grain could be raised
for the same money.' Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 204.