HIGHLAND FARMS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 320, 2 June 1874, Page 2

HIGHLAND FARMS.

Tnß size of some of the Highland ehcep farmt ii to be reckoned by miles, not by acres, and the stock, m in Australia, by the thousand. The largest iheep owner, perhaps, tbat tho 'Highlanders ever knew was Cameron of Cornchollie, now dead. He w&s once exa nined before a Committee of the House of Commons, and came to be questioned on the subject of his ownership of sheep. " You may have some 1500 sheep, probably, nr ? " quoth the interrogating M.P. " Aiblins," was Corrichollie's quiet reply, us he took a pinch of snuff; "Aiblins I hare a few more nor that." Two thousand, then ? " " Yes, I pelieve I have that and a few more forpye," calmly responded tho Highlander, with another pinch. "'Fire thousand?" "Oh aye, and a few more." 14 Twenty thousand, sir ?" cried the M.P., capping with a burst his previous bid. "Oh are, and loroe more forpye," was the imperturbable response of Corricholhe. " In heaven's name, how many sheep have you, man ? " burst out the astonished catcehist. "I am not very sure to a thousan' or two," replied Corricholhe in hit dry laconic way, and with an extra big pincli ; " but I am owner of forty thousand t icep at the lowest reckoning." Lochiel, known to the Sassenach as Mr Cameron, M.F., it perhaps the largest living sheep owner in Scotland. He has at least 30,000 shocp on his vast tracks of moorltnd on the braes of Loch»ber. In the Island of Skye Captain Cameron of Talisker has a flock of somo 12,000 ; and thero are several other flocks, both in the islands and on the mainland, of more than equal magnitude. Sheep farming is, at least, in many instances an hereditary avocation, and some farmers can trace a sheep-fanning ancestry very far back. The oUteit iheepfarming family in Scotland are the Mackinnont of Corrie, in Skye. They have been in Corrie for four hun(liod jears, and they woro holding sheep farms el?o« herd even earlier. Tho Jlneros of Achnagart, in KinttiJ, have paid rent to Senforth for two hundred years. For as long bef >ro they had held Adinasart on the tenure of a bunch of henther exigible, annually and their lighting cervices as good clansmen. Two hundred years ago an annual rental of £5 was substituted for the heather " corve ; " the clansmen's services continuing and being rendered up till the M-5. Now clanship is but u name, n bcaforth Mackenzie is no longer chief in Kintail, and the Macrae who has succeeded his forbenrers in Achnagart fmd< the bunch of heather and the £5 alike supenoded by the very far other than nominal rent of a thousand pounds. Tho modern Achnagart, with Ins broad shoulders and burly frame looks ai capable as were »ny of his ancestry to render personal *erv cc to his chief if a demand wore made upon him ; and very probably would be quite prepared to accept « rednction of his money rental if an obligation to pci form feudal clan-iervice wore substituted. Achntgart, with, hit £1,000 a jcar rouUl, by no

mean-> tops tho sheep funning rentals m u cmoty. Perhaps Robertson of Achiltie, whoso sheep walks ttretch up on t) tho snow-patched shoulders of Ben Wyvia, and far a Taj west to Loch Broom, pays the highest sheep farming rontul m RoM-slnre. when the factor has pocketed his balfjearljr oheque for £3000 — Gentlemam's Magazine.