Life in Moist, Cool Islands Made Harder Than Usual by Frequent Crop Failures of Recent Years.
Large groups of “crofters” or small farmers, emigrating from the Hebrides because they assert the climate there has changed, bringing about crop failures, draw attention to these islands off the west shore of Scotland.
“Life in the Hebrides whether because of climatic or social conditions, has always been rather hard.” says a bulletin in regard to the islands from the headquarters here of the National Geographic Society. “This part of Scotland is bleak, cool, and very moist. Vegetation does not grow luxuriantly, and the annual temperature has only a few degrees to fall in order that the danger point be reached. Turnips and potatoes are the chief standbys among the vegetables, while barley and oats grow fairly well. Pasturage is good, and stock raising is really the industry best adapted to the Islands: but this fact is of small value to the ‘crofters’ or small farmers. The cattle are raised, rather, on large estates.
Crop Failures Frequent.
“Time after time there have been crop failures which have put a large part of the population on the verge of starvation. On such occasions numbers of the crofters and cotters have gone to Australia or America. Some observers are pessimistic enough to see a time when all the small farmers and cottage dwellers will desert the islands, leaving them in the hands of large estate owners and seaside village fisherfolk.
“The Hebrides are not a small group of islands like the Shetlands and Orkneys. It is hard, in fact, to consider them apart from the mainland. The larger members of the Inner Hebrides are separated from Scotland proper by such narrow channels that only close inspection of the map shows them not to be a part of the mainland. The outer Hebrides even are only twelve miles off the coast. In spite of this proximity, however, the isles are somewhat isolated, and their inhabitants have clung to customs long since dropped by their kinsmen on the mainland. Rude old stone structures, religious symbols of a pre-Christian era, abound: and until comparatively recently the Christian islanders conducted certain ceremonies about them.
“Iona, one of the smaller of the inner Hebrides, was the ‘Blessed Isle’ of early Christian days in the British Islands. St Columbia, noted Irish missionary, made it the center of Celtic Christianity, a position which was made even stronger after his death. From there missionaries went out to convert Scotland and northern England to Christianity. Kings were brought to be buried in the soil of the sacred island. The Importance of Iona was ended, however, by the Danes, who swept down about the beginning of the ninth century and seized the Hebrides from the Scotch. The islands were not returned to Scotland’s overlordship until 1226. Later the Hebrides again had a sort of independence when a line of powerful Scotch noblemen set themselves up as ‘Lords of the Isles.’
One Hundred Islands Inhabited.
“More than 500 Islands make up the Hebrides group, but only about 100 are inhabited. When the semi-feudalistic regime was ended in the islands in 1748 many crofters were driven off the estates, the standard of living dropped very low and large numbers of people were barely able to keep alive. When, in 1884, famine drew attention to the hard lot of the people on many of the islands a relief commission was formed by the British government and certain reforms brought about. But even today on Lewis-With-Harris, the largest island, many of the people live under most primitive conditions In little stone huts roofed with turf and shared with animals and poultry.
“Danish blood is evident in some of the islands and a large proportion of the people speak Gaelic. Climatic conditions not only limit the vegetation, but have affected the animals of the islands, stunting them somewhat. There are small breeds of horses, cows and sheep. The variety, too. is small, especially among the mammals. On St. Kilda, outermost of the outer Hebrides, a mouse is the only indigenous mammal.”
The Evening Star, Washington, DC, May 12, 1924