During and after the World War agriculture experienced a period of marked prosperity, giving place to a period of de pression in more recent years. The decline in the value of land has been very great.
The crofters of the Highlands and islands had special griev ances of their own. During the first half of the 29th 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, govern ment appointed a royal commission to inquire into the whole question in 1883. It reported next year, and in 1886 the Crofters' Holding 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 has practically died out. In 1911 the Scottish Land Court and Board of Agriculture (now the Department of Agriculture for Scotland) were constituted, and the provisions of the earlier Crofters Acts were extended to other Small Landholders (Scotland) Act. The Department of Agriculture has expended considerable sums in recent years on development, including education and research work. Under the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act of 1897, £35,000 a year was devoted within certain districts of Argyll, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, to assist ing migration, improving the breeds of live stock, building piers and boat-slips, making roads and bridges, developing home in dustries, etc.
In 1927 there were 16,787 holdings under 5 acres in extent, and 50,340 under 5o acres. Holdings under 5o acres constituted two thirds of the total, though the larger portion of cultivated land was held in farms between 5o and 30o acres. There were 6o3 holdings of mountain and heath land only. The average holding in 1927 was 61.7 acres. The total number of holdings has fallen during the last 4o years, there being fewer small and very large holdings, while the number of medium-sized farms remains fairly constant.
The following table shows the cultivated area and the area under grain, green and miscellaneous crops.
During the last half-century the total acreage under crops and grass has remained comparatively stationary, but the acreage under crops has diminished, while land under permanent pasture has increased.• Only a little more than one-fourth of the total
area of Scotland is cultivated ; but it should be borne in mind that permanent pasture does not include the mountainous dis tricts, which not only form a large proportion of the surface, but also, in their heaths and natural grasses, supply a scanty herbage for sheep and cattle, 9.896,854 ac. being used for grazing in 1927. Since 1914 mountain and heath land thus used has increased by 750,000 ac., but the size of this figure is partly due to the inclusion of land previously used as deer forest. Oats remain the staple grain crop, but the acreage of arable land, as also that of land under oats, turnips and barley was in each case the smallest on record in 1927, and considerably below the average of the previous ten years. The areas under wheat and potatoes have, however, in creased in recent years, and the acreage of sugar beet, stimulated by a government subsidy, grew from 4 in 1923 to 10,352 in 1927. In the same year there were 1,496,363 ac. under rye grass and other rotation grasses and clover. The yield per acre of grain crops in Scotland is extremely high, as an offset to the limited area cultivated. The average yield of wheat, barley and oats in the ten years from 1917 to 1927 was 39.1, 36.3 and 40.2 bushels respectively.
The following table shows the number of live stock in 1927, with the average for the period 1917-1926. The breeds include the Ayrshire, noted milkers and specially adapted for dairy farms (which prevail in the south-west) ; Galloway Shorthorns; the polled Angus or Aberdeen, fair milkers, but valuable for their beef-making qualities, and the West Highland or Kyloe breed, a picturesque breed with long horns, shaggy coats and decided colours, that thrives well on wild and healthy pasture. The special breeds of sheep are the fine-woolled of Shetland, the blackfaced of the Highlands, the Cheviots, natives of the hills from which they are named, a favourite breed in the south, though Border Leicesters and other English breeds, as well as a variety of crosses, are kept for winter feeding on lowland farms. The prin cipal breeds of horses are the Shetland and Highland ponies, and the Clydesdale draught.