“The soil varies from pure sand to pure moss. Along the Atlantic there is a wide plain of sandy soil called Machair. This merges into a mixture of sand and moss (Breacthalamh, or mottled soil), which again merges into pure moss (Mointeach) towards the Minch. As the soil is dry and sandy, if the summer is dry the crop is light. On the other hand, if the summer is moist the crop is heavy and good. In order that all may have an equal chance, the Machair belonging to them is equally divided among the tenants of the township. Obviously the man who is restricted to his croft has fewer advantages than the man who, together with his croft, has his share of the Machair, and still fewer advantages than the man who has, rig for rig with his neighbours, the run of the various soils of his townland, which gives name to the system. Consequently a wet or dry season affects the tenant of the croft system more than the tenant of the combined system, and the tenant of the combined system more than the tenant of the run-rig system.
“The townland of Hosta is occupied by four, Ceolas Paipil by six, and the island of Heisgeir by twelve tenants. Towards the end of autumn, when harvest is over, and the fruits of the year have been gathered in, the constable calls a meeting of the tenants of the townland for Nabachd (neighbourliness). They meet, and having decided upon the portion of land to be put under green crop next year, they divide it into shares according to the number of tenants in the place, and the number of shares in the soil they respectively possess. Thereupon they cast lots, and the share which falls to a tenant he retains for three years. A third of the land under cultivation is thus divided every year. Accordingly the whole cultivated land of the townland undergoes revision every three years. Should a man get a bad share he is allowed to choose his share in the next division. The tenants divide the land into shares of uniform size. For this purpose they use a rod several yards long, and they observe as much accuracy in measuring their land as a draper in measuring his cloth. In marking the boundary between shares, a turf (Torc) is dug up and turned over the line of demarcation. The torc is then cut along the middle, and half is taken by the tenant on one side, and half by the tenant on the other side, in ploughing the subsequent furrow; similar care being afterwards exercised in cutting the corn along the furrow. The tenant’s portion of the run-rig is called Cianag, and his proportion of the grazing ground for every pound he pays Coir-sgoraidh.
“There are no fences round the fields. The crop being thus exposed to injury from the cattle grazing along the side, the people have a protecting rig on the margin of the crop. This rig is divided transversely into shares, in order to subject all tenants to equal risks.... Occasionally, and for limited bits of ground, the people till, sow, and reap in common, and divide the produce into shares and draw lots. This is called Comachadh, promiscuous. The system was not uncommon in the past, though now nearly obsolete.
“In making their own land arrangements for the year, the tenants set apart a piece of land towards the support of the poor....
“In reclaiming moor-land the tenants divide the ground into narrow strips of five feet wide or thereby. These strips, called lazy-beds (Feannagan, from feann, to scarify), the tenants allot among themselves according to their shares or crofts. The people mutually encourage one another to plant as much of this ground as possible. In this manner much waste ground is reclaimed and enhanced in value, the ground hitherto the home of the stonechat, grouse, snipe and sundew, is made to yield luxuriant crops of potatoes, corn, hay and grass. Not unfrequently, however, these land reclamations are wrested without acknowledgment from those who made them.
“The sheep, cattle and horses of the townland graze together, the species being separate. A tenant can only keep stock conformably to his share in the soil. He is however at liberty to regulate the proportions of the different kinds, provided that his total stock does not exceed his total grazing rights. He can keep a greater number of one species and a corresponding smaller number of another. Or he can keep a greater number of the young, and a corresponding less number of the old of the same species, or the reverse. About Whitsuntide, when the young braird appears, the people remove their sheep and cattle to the grazing ground behind the arable land. This is called clearing the townland. The tenants bring forward their stock (Leibhidh) and a souming (Sumachadh) is made. The Leibhidh is the tenant’s stock, the Sumachadh the number he is entitled to graze in common with his neighbours. Should the tenant have a croft, he is probably able to graze some extra stock thereon, though this is demurred to by his neighbours. Each ‘penny’ of arable lands has grazing rights of so many soums. Neither, however, is the extent of land in the penny, nor the number of animals in the soum uniformly the same.”
A soum consists of a cow and her progeny; in some places the cow and her calf only: in some a cow, her calf, her one-year-old progeny (called a stirk) and her two-year-old quey; in other places again, the cow, calf, stirk, quey and a three-year-old heifer. At four years old the heifer becomes a cow, and so originates a fresh soum.
In making souming calculations, it is assumed that one cow is equal to two queys or to four stirks or to eight calves, or to one heifer and one stirk. Also one cow is equal to eight sheep, or to twelve hoggs (one-year-old sheep) or to sixteen lambs or to sixteen geese. One mature horse is equal to two cows; also to eight foals, or to four one-year-old colts or fillies, or to two two-year-olds, or to one three-year-old and one colt or filly. The cow is entitled to her calf; and if one tenant has two cows without calves they are entitled to take one stirk instead.
Those tenants who are found at the souming to have overstock must either buy grazing from a tenant who has understock or may be allowed by the community to let the overstock remain on the grass till he can dispose of it. In that case payment must be made, according to a recognised code, into a common fund which is used to buy bulls or tups or for some other common purpose. The souming is amended at Lammas, and again at Hallowtide.