50 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 



One chief advantage of the " Tam Finlay" is the superiority of 

 its straw as cattle-fodder. It also bleeds well off the straw, 

 eighty bushels per Scots acre being thought nothing uncommon 

 in seasons of good ciops from land in good heart, although from 

 poor exhausted soils not more than a third of that is only too fre- 

 quently obtained, and these some years back, numbers of clay- 

 soil farmers have not doubled the seed sown. It also gives well 

 in meal — that is, such a weight even as 32 lbs. quality yields 

 what is termed meal for corn, or 140 lbs. oatmeal to every 8 

 bushels oats. The average weight per bushel of this variety for 

 the county will be about 35 lbs. in ordinary seasons, but for crops 

 1861, 1862, and 1N63, it would not average above 31 lbs., much 

 of it in these years not having reached above 25 lbs. per bushel. 

 What surplus oats are to dispose of, the farmeis get ground on 

 their own account, and sell in the form of meal, — receiving back 

 from the miller the u husks" and " mill-dust" for boiling pur- 

 poses. The Ayrshire millers are famous for making good oat- 

 meal, which usually fetches Is. to 2s. more per load in the Glas- 

 gow market than that from any other district. 



Oats are always sown broadcast and from hand ; the common 

 \ariety at the rate of 5 to 6 bushels per Scots acre on the better 

 class of soils, and from G to 7 bushels on the poorer uplands. 

 Thick sowing is in general favour with Ayrshire farmers, as that 

 tends to bring the crop sooner ready for reaping, — a most desir- 

 able thing with a west-country autumnal climate. Many farmers 

 now incline to sow oats earlier, about the middle of March, if 

 the weather fits ; but a large breadth are still put in towards the 

 end of March, or early in April. A more frequent change of seed, 

 if only from the earlier and lighter-soiled districts on to the more 

 backward clayish soils, and even vice vei'sa, would be found most 

 beneficial. By selecting seeds from vigorous plants, remarkable 

 for size of panicle (bunchy and close-set with florets), especially 

 if got combined with earliness of ripening, vast improvement on 

 the " Tam Finlay oat" might be made. The principal wheat 

 growers now import great part of their seed-wheat and seed-oats 

 from East Lothian and England, and nothing tends so much as 

 such renewal to having good crops or heavy plump grain, although 

 a drawback to the sowing of Lothian oats is the prevalence of 

 ( wild-oats" in even the cleanest samples, and the " wild-oat" 

 naturally is hardly ever found in Ayrshire ; neither are "ranches," 

 (R. raphanistrum) , and " wild mustard" (sinapis arvensis), so 

 common as in the east. On some of the better class of farms 

 placed on the lower slopes of Kyle and Cunningham, and gene- 

 rally on all the low-lving fertile soils of Carrick, early short oats 

 are grown in more or less proportion ; and as good crops of these, 

 with fine samples of heavy grain, are raised, as even Kelso dis- 

 trict would find it hard to match. " Early Angus" oats are cul- 



