One of the men who by their labour feed us.

This is Charles, a local farmer and a friend of many years standing. I often bump into him when I am out on the push-bike. Today he was carting silage for his nowt*.

* Nowt is the local dialect word for cattle, which together with cereals play a major role in the agriculture of Buchan, our local area.

The opening verse of John C. Milnes's poem, the Lairig written in Doric, the local dialect, puts it well:

Fin God made Buchan flat and gweed,
He'd nowt and corn in His Heid.

which roughly translates

When God made Buchan flat and fertile,
He had cattle and corn in mind.

A writer of farming stock, John Milne (1897-1962) was born at Memsie near Fraserburgh. After a brilliant academic career at Aberdeen University, he turned to teaching, later becoming Master of Method at Aberdeen College of Education. His verse collection, The Orra Loon, was published in 1946 and his Collected Poems in 1963.