28 EEPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 



the worse. The winters are far milder and opener, with less 

 frost and more rain and sleets, and what frost there is, usually 

 of short duration. The thick dense fogs, so common on the 

 East coast, are hardly known at all in Ayrshire : neither is snow 

 of frequent occurrence ; and what of it does fall on the low 

 lands melts away almost immediately afterwards, whilst even on 

 the higher grounds to the east, heavy falls of snow are but rare, 

 compared with the inland districts of Dumfries and Kirkcud- 

 bright shires. Our summers, also, have become much wetter 

 and colder. Formerly, extreme droughts of perhaps six or eight 

 weeks' duration, during summer, frequently occurred, but such 

 events now are like angel's visits, and not much missed either, 

 as during their continuance the dairy cattle were often reduced 

 to great straits. From the formation of the shire, — the land 

 rising mostly in slow progression of gentle swells and rolling 

 eminences, from sea-level to its highest altitude on the northern 

 and eastern boundaries, — it follows as a matter of course that 

 the larger portion of the arable lands have a western or southern 

 exposure ; and the blighting effects of the north-east wind are 

 less in Ayrshire than in many other Scotch counties — particu- 

 larly so in Carrick, where the early potatoes suffer little from 

 summer frosts, in comparison with what they occasionally do in 

 Kyle and Cunningham. On most of the farms the young stock are 

 seldom brought under cover, excepting during rare times of snow ; 

 and formerly, too, the milch cows on many farms lay out during 

 the winter months, but they are now usually housed at night the 

 whole year round, not only because of more and better house- 

 accommodation, but that as much manure also as possible may 

 be got. There are an abundance of rivers and smaller streams 

 in Ayrshire, rising all amongst the high grounds towards the 

 east, and running a general westerly or south-westerly course, till 

 they empty their contents into the Frith of Clyde ; and these, 

 along with the general knolliness of surface, assist much in car- 

 rying off the too great excess of moisture. 



SECTION II. 



Different Systems of Farm-management — Various kinds of Rotation fol- 

 lowed — Potato Culture — Cattle Feeding — Sheep Farming — Liquid- 

 manure-Farming, &c. 



Little more than eighty years ago the state of cultivation in 

 Ayrshire was extremely defective. The implements of hus- 

 bandry w T ere of the rudest and most artless make, and the house- 

 accommodation for both cultivators and cattle, of the very 

 poorest kind, — so we are told. The accommodation, even yet, on 

 some occasional farms is much behind the age, although this is 

 more particularly applicable to the dwelling-houses on some of 



