Crofting was originally established as a tenant system to encourage people to live on and work the land. In the 1600s and 1700s, crofters rented land from the landowners, on which they raised sheep and cattle and grew food, in addition to performing extra labor for the landowner. Eventually, laws were put into place granting crofters security of tenure, meaning that they could pass their crofts on to their children, generation after generation, and were safe from eviction as long as they paid their rent. Today, crofting is a vanishing way of life, and many farmsteads across Jura lie abandoned.  There are only six active crofts on the island today, and, as on other small islands all over Britain, the small-scale farming of sheep and cattle (and fishing, for that matter) are dying industries.