The book Arran; - Cook Clan

196 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
according to the present system of management, the people
could not bear an additional rise.' ^
The routine of the island life in the eighteenth century,
as it might be observed by an outsider, was simple and
laborious enough. From the beginning of February to the
end of May all are at work on the land, each farm, however,
setting its own times and following its own methods by
common agreement. Summer is the season for the cutting
and storing of peat as the only fuel in use, and along with
this the houses must receive their annual repair ; being such
as they are, they require constant attention. The women
do most of the reaping, at which they are very skilled,
cutting (with the hook) ' close and clean.' It is they, too,
who set the potatoes. Harvest home, the men go to the
herring fishery, and in the autumn there is also a burning
of fern for kelp. Most of the kelp, however, was made from
the sea-wrack, but neither the stones on which wrack might
grow nor the facilities of the Arran beach are very favourable
to this industry. The wrack was most abundant on the
rocky southern shore and round Pladda and the Holy Isle.
A smack used to call every year at Torlin, Lag, and the
Cleats to take away the kelp, while tenants came in boats
to cut a share of the richer crop of sea-plants in that coast
and in both islands, paying the tenants of the Holy Isle 2s.
a boatload for the privilege. An old farmer, born in 1816,
tells how, when he was a young man, he and his neighbours
in Blairmore used to take a smack round to the south end
in the spring to cut the wrack there. The local people had
all they required from the shore : the visitors took it from
the rocks, and each party helped the other. Each smackload,
for the hire, whisky (it was a cold wet business), and
provisions, cost about two pounds. Kelp was being made
till about 1836.
> View of Arran, p. 306. Gross rent is £5500, which was about ten shillings per
acre for arable land, allowing nothing for hill pasture.