Farming enterprise in 20th century Glassary
TO READ this book is akin to opening up a time capsule.
Running to 396 pages, the Argyll volume of the Third Statistical Account of Scotland, published in 1961, is no lightweight. But the world revealed within this time-yellowed volume is fascinating. So recent, yet another world away.
Compiled by ‘Scotland’s four universities’ on behalf of the Scottish Council for Social Service, the Third Statistical Account of Scotland contains a wealth of information about the nation as it was in the mid-20th century.
The Argyll volume covers the entire county parish by parish, from Kintyre to Ardnamurchan and the islands.
On page 227, there is a section on the Mid Argyll parish of Glassary, written in 1955 by JG Mathieson.
Agriculture is described as the ‘chief industry’ in Glassary parish and the main employer, based on ‘the rearing of blackfaced sheep of high quality’.
Until the Second World War, writes Mr Mathieson, sheep were sold at Lochgilphead, Oban or Glasgow and were subject to price fluctuations. Early in the war, however, a centre was set up in Lochgilphead where livestock fit for slaughter were graded, weighed and paid for at fixed prices – a system which proved ‘generally acceptable’.
The chapter pays tribute to the farmers producing a high quality of beef cattle in Glassary parish, stating: ‘It is a great tribute to the enterprise and skill of these men that they are able, often on land of an inferior nature, to bring out such fine stock.’
On the dairy side, the book refers to there being several ‘excellent’ herds of Ayrshire cattle. Milk was taken to Oban for distribution. Some years before, a creamery operated in Lochgilphead but ‘because of a pressing demand for beef’ the milk supply was reduced to the extent that it did not meet the creamery demands and it closed.
The general prosperity of farms is largely put down to the enthusiasm and energy of farmers, but government support also helped.
Mr Mathieson refers to subsidies for hill cattle, dairy-attested stocks, for calves, sheep and ploughing all helping farmers to survive and keep food prices reasonable.
Farm workers are described as ‘a steady, hard-working body of men … loyal to their employers, with whom there is a certain amount of give and take, and a good proportion of them have been on the same farms for years – surely a tribute to both masters and men’.
The march of Sitka spruce across Argyll gets a mention.
In Glassary, planting was in full swing on ‘large tracts of land’ bought by the Forestry Commission. Mr Mathieson describes the loss of sheep from the hills as a ‘disturbing feature’.
An argument in favour of tree planting was that it would result in an increase in employment in comparison with sheep farming. Looking back from today’s standpoint, mechanisation and automation have replaced workers to a large extent in farming and forestry. Livestock has long left the hills, but the trees remain.