The book Arran; - Cook Clan

188 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
at the average of 5 to a family makes 5550 mouths that must
be maintained ; and if to these be added, for necessary
mechanics of all kinds, tinkers, labourers, etc., 300 families,
the whole island must contain 7050 souls.^
' There are 10,067 acres arable ground and meadow that
has been ploughed and cultivated lying within the said belt,
and there is 15,770 acres of pasture ground, mostly capable
of cultivation.^
' Many a serious thought and contemplation the
Memorialist have bestowed upon the cultivation and improvement
of this island, which had the effect to produce
many a different idea ; what of these he can remember he
shall state in order to be approven of or corrected, etc.
'From 18 years acquaintance with the island he begs
leave to observe that the island is oppressed with too many
people, as well as too many cattle ;
as to the former he had
' Mr. Pennant's figures for cattJe, etc., in the same year run thus :
Milk Cows . . . 3183
Cattle, 1 to 3 years old
Horses
Sheep
Goats
2000
1058
1500
500
He adds :
' Many of the two last are killed at Michaelmas and dried for winter
provision, or sold at Greenock. The cattle are sold from forty to fifty shillings per
head, which brings into the island about £1200 per annum. I think the sale of
horses also brings in about £300. Hogs were introduced here only two years ago.
The herring fishing round the island brings in £300, the sale of herring nets £100,
and that of thread about £300, for a good deal of flax is sown here. There are the
exports of the island; but the money that goes out for mere necessaries is a melancholy
drawback.
'The produce of the island is oats ;
of which about five thousand bolls, each equal
five hundred of beans, a few peas, and above a
to nine Winchester bushels, are sown :
thousand bolls of potatoes are annually set ; notwithstanding this, five hundred bolls
of oatmeal are annually imported, to subsist the natives."—Pennant's Tour, edit.
1774, p. 177.
—
2 Headrick thinks this much short of the actual area. Still, if other proprietors
than the Duke hold about 300 acres, and the Duke's gross rent works out to £5500,
this leaves the arable at less than 10s. an acre and nothing for pasture. Headrick
thinks that with improvements the rent could be raised to £15,000 or even £20,000 a
year, with advantage to everybody. View of Arran, p. 305.