REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 57 



again by a few farmers after early potatoes, and sometimes eaten 

 off with sheep, and sometimes ploughed in young as green 

 manuring for the wheat crop. Vetches are grown for green 

 house-feeding on almost every farm, but seldom more than about 

 a rood in extent, and most frequently not so much. They are 

 always sown in mixture with beans, or oats, or both. 



Thirty years ago, and previously, flax was grown in small 

 degree upon almost every farm, generally for home use, except 

 in the parishes of Dairy, Beith, aad Kilbirnie, where it was 

 cultivated to a greater extent for sale. But its culture began to 

 dwindle about the time stated (probably from the introduction 

 of cheaper cotton goods), and was quite given up a few years 

 later, saving only in the parishes named. There were 318 

 statute acres under flax in 1819, in Cunningham division alone, 

 from which it is inferred that the total acreage in Ayrshire at 

 that date would be from 500 to 600 acres ; Kyle and Carrick 

 never having grown this plant so extensively as Cunningham. 

 The reporter observes that the Agricultural Statistics of 1856-57 

 give the extent of flax grown in Ayrshire for these years, as re- 

 spectively 10 and 17 acres only, but some error must surely 

 have crept in, as he is pretty confident that the quantity in the 

 above-noted district never fell below from 100 to 200 acres. 

 The acreage under flax in 1863, in the three parishes of Beith, 

 Dairy, and Kilbirnie, was from 310 to 320 imp. acres ; although, 

 probably, not so much as other ten acres were grown in all the 

 rest of Ayrshire. In 1853, the late and much-mourned Lord 

 Egliutun exerted himself to induce his numerous tenantry to 

 grow flax, but the effort was not successful, as few continued it 

 more than the one season, owing probably to the rise in 

 prices of grain during the Crimean war. High prices of grain, 

 most unquestionably, cannot jar with flax cultivation now. 



Flax certainly merits more attention at the hands of Ayr- 

 shire farmers. The crops of it around Beith are generally good, 

 and worth any two average oat crops. There is plenty of outlet for 

 it, as the Messrs. W. and J. Knox of Kilbirnie, and the Messrs 

 Crawford Brothers, of Beith, are open to purchase far more 

 than they can get the surrounding farmers to grow. Presently 

 the crop, as grown in Ayrshire, has not justice done to it. It is 

 only the poorest land which the Messrs. Knox can generally get 

 to lease from the farmers, although paying a rent per acre that 

 could not be realized in ordinary seasons from a good oat crop ; 

 and besides, the Messrs. Knox are at all the expense of seed and 

 hand labour (the farmers doing only the ploughing, harrowing, 

 and carting), yet with all these drawbacks the Messrs. Knox 

 lind that the crop pays. The flax crop is not an exhausting one as 

 many fanners ignorantly suppose. It is only exhausting so far 

 in relation to its effect upon future crops of flax. Coming in 



