KEPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 33 



wise, putting their lightest fields under a 5-shift, and sowing 

 out the others as by the " old Fairlie mode." The turnips in 

 the inland distiicts are invariably carted off the fields, and 

 pitted or otherwise stored near the home-stead ; indeed, sheep 

 turnip-folding is very uncommon even on the shore lands com- 

 pared with what it is on the opener and more friable rocky 

 soils to the south of the adjacent counties of Galloway. 



But a large breadth of the inland arable lands is managed 

 on the 9 or 10 year rotation already stated (very common on the 

 Portland estates) ; and most of these longer rotation men, either 

 have some of their fields constantly under, or frequently revert 

 to the old Fairlie method, when a field of greater tenacity comes 

 in course, or, during times when cheese is rating high. Owing 

 to the cycle of wretchedly wet years lately passed through, the 

 Fairlie rotation, indeed, is presently far more in vogue than it 

 was some 15 to 20 years back. Under these last two rotations, 

 the system of farming is the most exclusively Dairy of all, in- 

 cluding grass-rearing of young Ayrshire cattle ; the turnips, 

 potatoes, cabbage, &c, of the "'Fairlie" men, being usually a 

 mere patch in one of the fields, and no more oats being grown 

 than will yield the necessary supply of winter fodder ; whilst 

 on the 9 or 10 year rotation farms, the manured green crops, on 

 a farm of say 120 acres, will vary from 4 to 12 acres in different 

 seasons. And, although there are individual cases where one 

 white crop is only and regularly taken out the lea, even after 

 four years pasture, yet the practice of taking two successive 

 white crops in beginning the course, is by much the most com- 

 mon. The lea-land, of course, is generally pretty well top- 

 dressed previous to lifting. There are doubtless other rotations, 

 as well as modifications of those noted, in such a large county as 

 Ayrshire, but from what has been said, and what immediately 

 follows, any intelligent stranger farmer may form a tolerably 

 correct idea of Ayrshire land management. It is corn versus 

 milk that the dairy farmer has to decide on, and he must be, 

 and is, much influenced in his mode of cropping by the relative 

 state of the markets for each. The interests of the landlord and 

 tenant are one and inseparable (or ought to be), and it is worse 

 than folly on a landlord's part to bind down a dairy-tenant to 

 grow a large and fixed area of roots annually. Beans, maize, and 

 other feeding-stuffs, are now so plentiful and cheap, that the 

 dairy farmer is much less dependent upon roots for house feeding. 

 The following are a few examples (condensed) of various 

 systems of farm management in the more advanced districts ; 

 and although those mentioned are all fair specimens of the Ayr- 

 shire husbandman, yet there are scores of others equally as 

 good, — we cannot say better. These will give a fair idea of the 

 farming chiefly in the shore districts, whilst the exclusively 



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