CULTIVATION Please choose one ADMINISTRATION AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS COMMUNICATIONS CONFLICT CULTIVATION ENCLOSURES ENERGY EXTRACTION FLOODING GRAZINGS HOUSING KNOWLEDGE LEISURE MANUFACTURE PERCEPTION SETTLEMENTS TRADES Spade cultivation Gardens Rigs and fields Forestry and other first ploughing Sutherland reclamations, Loch Shin, Sutherland The Sutherland reclamations were an ambitious, but ultimately misguided attempt to bring large areas of land under cultivation in Sutherland, in the 1870s. Uncultivated ground was broken by means of a giant hook, hauled by a Fowler of Leeds steam traction engine and nick-named the 'Duke's toothpick'. Any stone which the 'toothpick' could not dislodge or break was marked with a stake, to be blown up later with dynamite. By 1878, after six years, some 2,000 acres had been ploughed. In the end the returns achieved by reclamation hardly justified the heavy expense involved. Resource pack   1     2     3     4