REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 4o 



with Leicester rams. Half a score of swine are annually fattened 

 off. Mr. Hutcheson and his sons now hold other three farms be- 

 sides Ducharneil — two of them sheep-farms from the Earl of 

 Stair, in New-Luce parish, of 1600 acres area; and the other, Bal- 

 hamie, near Colmonell, on the Stinchar, from Cathcart of Knock - 

 dolian. The latter is of about 400 acres ; the low ground, deep 

 alluvial soil, being wrought on a 4-sh if t rotation, with dairy cows 

 grazed on the upper pasture, and about 12 score of ewes on the 

 hill, taking cross-lambs same as at Ducharneil. Mr. David 

 Hutcheson is an example of a numerous class amongst the Ayr- 

 shire tenant-farmers who have raised themselves to good social 

 position by their honesty, perseverance, and most industrious 

 habits. 



Were it necessary, other instances could be cited of wild 

 moor being reclaimed by much similar modes of procedure as at 

 Ducharneil, but not entirely within the period of 25 years, 

 allowed by the " Highland Society" to report progress in. 



We may note, for one, the many and varied improvements of 

 H. S. James, Esq. of Martnaham, on Martnaham Moor (Craigs 

 o' Kyle), executed within the past 15 years. 



Little that is new can be written on the purely pastoral farm- 

 ing around the outskirts of the shire. Ayrshire ranks the eighth 

 in importance as a sheep county in Scotland. When Aiton 

 wrote in 1810, the Cheviot breed was merely then being intro- 

 duced into Ayrshire, and many experienced sheep farmers pre- 

 dicted at that time, that they would never do for this county ; 

 but of late years, on all the lower-lying and grassier hilly lands 

 at least, they have greatly superseded the blackfaced aborigines. 

 This may be owing partly to the greater profitableness of the 

 Cheviots, but also, no doubt, to surface-draining and liming of 

 rough " spretty" land, the providing of shelter and warmth 

 from judiciously placed belts of planting, and the vastly greater 

 supply of turnips now for winter keep, having rendered the 

 county better adapted for them. Extensive tracts of bleak, wet, 

 mossy heath-land, exist, however, on which the blackfaced will 

 always be the most advantageous breed. Great improvement, 

 doubtless, has been made on the blackfaced sheep since Alton 

 wrote, and which has been effected by judicious selection and 

 crossing within the breed itself. Much of this improvement 

 must be placed to the emulation excited in the leading sheep- 

 farmers by the annual shows of the "Ayrshire Agricultural As- 

 sociation." 



Almost all the sheep-farmers keep dairy stocks. We instance 

 one well-known and esteemed gentleman, who is just about to 

 retire from public life— viz., Mr. Andrew Mitchell, Linfairn. Mr. 

 Mitchell occupies two sheep-farms near Straiton, stocked with 

 Cheviots, but holds ten times as much land, or more we believe, in 



