64 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 



tenants, chiefly on the " Fullarton estate," the average weight of white 

 clover (or, of clovers, in toto) sown by the Duke's tenants, will hardly reach 

 2 lbs. per acre. Were the}- compelled to sow the full quantity agreed upon, 

 the subsequent pasture would certainly be very superior, whether the rye- 

 grass hay was seeded or not, although it is distinctly stated that the grass is 

 to be cut "green for hay." 



The late Mr. Campbell of Craigie prohibited his tenants from 

 saving more rye-grass seed than actually necessary for their own 

 sowing, and other Ayrshire landlords would do well to follow 

 the example, if only for their tenants' own good. 



Hardly any thing in most cases being now sown but rye- 

 grass, the exhaustion of the soil by the seed crop more than 

 counterbalances any benefit arising from the few artificial roots' 

 left. What few sickly roots of ryegrass are to the fore, come 

 away in the forepart of summer like so many darning-needles, 

 and there is little herbage of any other kind save weeds, with in 

 most cases about one-half the surface in a state of nudity 

 After green crop the land is even barer of course than where 

 sown down with the second crop of oats from the lea, By the 

 third year the pastures begin to improve slightly, from the 

 spreading of any chance white clover plants there may be, and 

 from dropt seeds off what of the needle-like rye-grass stalks the 

 cows had refused to eat, as well as from a few other grasses be- 

 ginning to appear here and there ; but the creeping crowfoots, 

 mid that "wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower," though worthless 

 pasture plant, the common gotvan, have multiplied and spread 

 themselves still more, and in very many fields during the third 

 and fourth years, about three-fourths of the surface is quite oc- 

 cupied by these two most nourishing (!) plants, neither of which 

 is relished or eaten by cows unless incidentally or when forced 

 to do so by Hunger. Other two weeds, Prunella vulgaris and 

 Bartsia odeniites, are very common, and the prevalence of either 

 in any considerable quantity is a sure sign, of an exhausted soil. 



This destructive practice of ryegrass-seeding is one of the 

 chief obstacles to improvement of the grass lands in Ayrshire. 

 The proper test of agricultural progress over the great breadth 

 of Ayrshire is, not how many more bushels of wheat or how 

 many more tons of turnips are raised, but how many more 

 stones of cheese are produced from each acre of land under 

 grass. The reporter does not fear contradiction when he affirms 

 that, there is less weight of cheese made now to the acre, over 

 the county, than there was about 25 to 30 years back. The pro- 

 duction of a greater weight of cheese per acre of grass, depends 

 primarily on an improvement in the quality and quantity of the 

 grass itself, not so much on the kind and milking-qualities of 

 the cows kept, which, though important matters enough, are yet 

 only secondary to the grass feeding. Probably a majority of 

 the cows now possess better natural milking power than was the 



