128 Proceedings of the Society, February 9, 1925
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128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 9, 1925. III. WHIN-MILLS IN ABERDEENSHIRE. BY JAMES RITCHIE, F.E.I.S., CORRESPONDING MEMBER, S.A.SCOT. The position of agriculture to-da Aberdeenshirn yi s verei y different from what it was a century or two ago. Now the county is one of e besth t cultivate n Scotlandi d s cropit , f oatd o turnips an se ar s excellent s black-polledit , d shorthoran n cattl e famouear e worlth s d over, and no beef realises a higher price in the London market than that sent from Aberdeenshire. But this state of matters is compara- tively modern greaa loncultivatioo o n s i langt e ag w death no d; no f o l n s wastewa , being 'marsh d waterlogged,an y r covereo - d with heather, whins, and broom, while even the cultivated land was overgrown with weed o suct s n extenha t thae cropth t s produced were f scanto d yan poor quality. The methods of cultivation too were primitive: the fields wer l eshape al unfence d sizesf o an s d . an dThe y were divided into " infiel "d outfield, "an " tha , thosis t e nea farm-steadine th r thosd gan e at a distance from it. To the former all the manure produced on the farm was applied, while the latter were worked as long as a paying cros producedpwa d thenan , , when their fertilite timth er beinfo y g was exhausted, they were allowe e fallowli o t d , till natur n somi e e degree e farrestoreTh m . buildingit d s wer eo wer s e poor d th e an , farmers. In ordinary times it was a hard struggle to make a living, and when bad seasons came, farmers and the country people in general often suffered great hardship. A bad harvest still inflicts loss on the farmer, but its effects on the general community have been largely modifiee importatioth y b d f fooo n d from abroad. Formerld ba a y harvest entaile t onlno dy financial loss t ofte,bu n starvatio deathd nan , not only because there was little or no importation of foreign food- stuffs, but because, owing to bad roads and inefficient means of com- munication t readil e e surpludistricno th ,on s yf wa o stavailabl o t e meet the wants of another, even within what we would now regard as easy reach. Privations wer t confine people e no districte th th f o e livt o de th ,e stock also bore its share, and this share was all the greater owing to e systeth f farminmo g the voguen ni . Turnips were almost unknown in' Aberdeenshire till the latter half of the eighteenth century, and even then wer t largeleno y cultivated. They wer t firsea t sown broad- cast, and were regarded more as curiosities or as vegetables'for domestic use importanthan a s na t farm crop. There wer extraneouo en s supplies, WHIN-MILLS IN ABERDEENSHIRE. 129 such as oil-cake and other feeding-stuffs, to give to the cattle, which had to depend solely on the food produced on the farm. In times of scarcity, when straw was short and grass scanty, the farmer had often great difficulty in carrying his stock safely through the winter till the fresh spring grass appeared. Sometimes he had to sacrifice his least valuable animal morsave o st livee th eth f e o s valuable ones. Thers ei a "pot" or pool in the Don, near Parkhill, about six miles from Aberdeen, in which, tradition says, criminals were drowned in the days of "pot and gallows," and a large stone on the bank is still pointed out as the spot where the judge sat in order to see his sentence carried out. But s saii o havt t d po e e beeth n use e drownindth alsr fo o f foalgo n i s tim f famineo e , t whesufficien e owneno th nd ha r t foo o keet d p both mar foad an el alive. Better sacrific foaa e savo t l a mare e than risk the loss of both by starvation. Of course, the foals so destroyed were of little value, since the horses were small and were used chiefly for carrying pack-saddles. The heavy work of the farm was done by oxen, d evean n they littlo wers f eo e value that towarde e closth th sf o e eighteenth century a strong young work ox could be bought for about 6 sterling£ e butche ,th d worn-ous sol whilol o r wa t d fo n re a e on t sometimes as small a sum as £3. Another local custom indicating the state of scarcity which might prevai winten li thas "f r wa cattlto e lifting." When, afte hara r d winter or late spring, the grass did ultimately begin to grow, it occasionally happened tha t e cattlesomth f eo , reduce winter'a y db s want, wero eto wea mako grazingse kt th consequencea e o t s theiy A . rwa , neighbour- ing farmers banded together, and, proceeding from one farm to another, actually " lifted weakle th " y cattle fro pasturee stalle th mth e o st Th . poor condition of the cattle may have been increased in some cases by e curiouth s custo f bleedinmo g living cattl timen ei f greao s t scarcity, in order that the blood so obtained should be mixed with oatmeal and use s humaa d a crue d barbarous nan l wa food t I .s customt i t bu , shows to what straits our forerunners were brought by the menace of starvation. WHINSF O . I THE E.US It was in times like these that whins or gorse came to be used as cattle foodsheeOn .p pastur roundeethe d bee-hive appearancthe eof whin bushes, caused by the sheep nibbling away the tender green shoots e plantoth f s thesa y gro earlwn i y spring, show mucw ho sh this fare is appreciated. Whins were found to be equally good food for cattle agriculturad ol e horsesd th an d an l, manuals contain chemical analyses designe shoo dt w tha nutrimene th t furzf almoss o t wa e t equa thao t l t VOL. LIX. 9 130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 9, 1925. of clover hay and far exceeded that of turnips. So impressed were farmers wit feedinhthe g possibilitie whinof s s tha somin t e partof s Britain the crop was laid down in the ordinary way, the seeds being sown in March and the crop harvested in the autumn of the year following. "The sowing of whins for feeding of cattle," wrote an agriculturis h Apri6t n l o t1725 , "takes mightily about London just now . this improvement conies from Wales, where it has been practised these hundred years." Aberdeenshire farmers appear not to have taken so mightily to gorse- feeding as the Londoners; probably they limited their gorse harvest to e abundanth t e supplrougth n hyo ground f whico , h most farmd ha s their share. But the use of the crop entailed on all one particular operation. Sheep browse only upon the tender shoots of the year, but general whin-cutting include more dth e woody portion plane d th f tan so demanded, that the spines should be destroyed if injury to the feeders avoidede b o whin-bruisino t S s undertaken.e b wa o t e th d n ha gI . south this process ultimately led to the development of transportable machinery, iron mills especially designed for the purpose; but in the north it seems to have i-emained at a more primitive level, leading to the development of a series of simple crushing implements. These implements hav l f passeregulao al e t dou r use, their purpose may soon be forgotten; it is the aim of this paper to set on record the evolution of these bygone agricultural instruments which seem once to have been universally distribute Aberdeenshire—thn di e whin-mills, or , vernaculare inth , " fun-mulls." II. THE FLAIL. On a small farm or croft where only a few cattle were kept, the quantity of whin shoots required would not be great, and no expensive apparatu s requiredswa . After protectin hands ghi s with thick gloves, the farmer went to the nearest rough ground, and with a hook or sickle cut from the whin bushes as many young shoots as he needed. These he conveyed to the farm-steading and proceeded to render fit for the animals to eat. The ordinary implement used for threshing the grain crop at the time was the flail, made of two rods jointed together, one bein ge handle th use e beaters e othea dth th , s modificatioA a r . f o n this implement served for beating the whins. It was made more effective attachmenth y b e f sharpeneo t d strip f hooo s pe th iro o nt "beater, thato "s s bloa , w after blo e maswth f whinsfelo sn o le th , sharp edges of the iron cut them into small pieces, more easily pulped. This harwa sd work d coulan , d onl e performeb y n able-bodiea y b d d e implementth f o accustomen e us ma .e th o dt WHIN-MILLS IN ABERDEENSHIRE.