REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 25 



the most densely wooded county in Scotland ; and this fact, 

 along with the general insufficiency of drainage, accounts some- 

 what for the great and constant moistness of climate. 



More than one-half of all the arable lands consists of clays and 

 heavy loams. Situated on the coal formation from near Girvan up 

 to Beith, outbursts and dykes of trap-rock, and limestone abound, 

 and the strength of the soil varies much. On many farms, con- 

 sequently, some of the fields or parts of them may be of com- 

 paratively friable soil, whilst the others are of the usual deep 

 clay ; mostly with clayish sub-soil, and in the basins or lower- 

 lying tracts of land, from two to ten fathoms of boulder-drift- 

 clay ere the first bed of new red sandstone is reached. Within 

 the last twenty-five years, however, and in some cases for a much 

 longer period, much of the clay land, through drainage and 

 other meliorating influences, has been changed into a darker 

 coloured, and more workable, but still very strong loam. No- 

 where is such change more observable than in the valley of 

 the Irvine ; in which, if we trace out a walk from Kilmarnock, 

 south-west by Forty-acres Toll to Dundonald, thence north- 

 west to Irvine, thence round by Auchenharvie to near Stewar- 

 ton, and back via Eowallan to Kilmarnock, we will enclose 

 some forty square miles of the truest, and best cropping 

 and grass land in the county. The clays on the higher ridges 

 are thinner and nearer the till, of a brownish red colour gene- 

 rally, and totally unworkable for green crops with Ayrshire cli- 

 mate. That kind of clay soil hardens into a brick-like substance 

 during the occasional summer droughts. A stripe of land 

 stretching along the shore in an almost unbroken line from 

 Largs to past Girvan, and, excepting a few places of high rocky 

 coast, having a breadth of from one to three miles, comprises 

 the greater part of the light soils. Considerable extents of good 

 holm-land — deep light loams mostly — are scattered throughout 

 Kyle and Cunningham by the banks of the Ayr, Irvine, Gar- 

 nock, and other waters ; and more of such of even finer quality, 

 alongside of the Girvan and Stinchar rivers, and in other minor 

 vales of Carrick. Carrick division, although least in propor- 

 tion of arable land, contains by much the largest extent of good 

 turnip-soils ; most of the seaward declivities of all the high 

 grounds from Doonfoot to past Ballautrae being of a light friable 

 nature, excellent for green cropping, and producing a strong 

 sward of sweet grass. As for level " carse-clay land," there is 

 not a bit of it in all Ayrshire. 



The arable farms towards the moor-edges of Cunningham 

 and Kyle, usually include a large portion of what can only be 

 described as peatish clay soil, commonly termed grey land, and 

 which, barring the lateness of situation, is not the worst kind of 

 soil in the county. Throughout the glens of the hilly parishes, 



