68 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 



uh ere the sub-soil is open it is done only with each alternate 

 drain, but with stiff tilly bottoms every drain is deepened. The 

 late Duke's charge for the original draining was 5s. per Scotch 

 acre of additional rent, and in some cases on his poorer upland 

 clays only 2s. 6d. ; the tenants only carting and laying down 

 the tiles in small heaps alongst the intended lines. The re- 

 draining is now charged to the new tenants at 5 per cent, on 

 outlay. The reporter may be excused for inserting the follow- 

 ing extract of a communication from the Duke's office at Brae- 

 head House, Kilmarnock : — " As usually the case with innova- 

 tions and improvements, tile-draining was regarded at first as a 

 very doubtful experiment by the farmers in this neighbourhood, 

 and it was a proof of your father's liberal and advanced views in 

 agricultural matters, that he had faith in the experiment, and 

 was the first to make trial of it," 



Draining has been pushed on very rapidly generally over 

 Ayrshire since about 1845. The drains first put in under the 

 government grant, at 'Sh and 4 feet depth, with intervals of 28 

 and 'SO feet between, were found worse than useless in the stiff 

 clayish subsoils generally prevailing, as the farmers committed 

 the gross error on Ayrshire heavy lands, of levelling the former 

 rounded ridges, ploughing with wide breadths for the purpose 

 of green cropping, and laying the land after into 15 feet ridges 

 of a flat form, so that the ground between the drains actually lay 

 wetter than before. This is being helped in many cases now by 

 inserting shallower drains in the intervals. Mostly the draining 

 done now with government monev, is at 42 inches and 18 or 20 

 feet apart ; and where done with the proprietor's own money, 

 commonly at about 3 feet depth in every furrow (15 feet). On 

 many farms of heavy soil, alter being drained, the " Fairlie 

 rotation *' was thrown aside, wider acreage put under green 

 crops, and guano substituted in great part, both for green crops 

 and white crops, instead of the former mode of dunging and 

 liming on the sward. During the course of the first rotation 

 after drainage, the guano answered most admirably, and great 

 crops of every thing were raised, but during the second course 

 just elapsed, the guano-manuring in most cases has much dis- 

 appointed the farmer's expectations. The land is now even barer 

 of grass, and still stiffcr to plough (although the grass-seeding 

 joined with the green cropping, accounts partly for the increased 

 bareness of grass). The guano encouraged farmers to plough 

 more than they could properly dress with solid dung, and Ayr- 

 shire clays must have something or other to keep them open. 

 Dung or lime effects a sort of porousness, but guano (with so 

 much wet) allows the soil to run together, till it gets so close and 

 soured that nothing will grow. Certain farms could be pointed 

 out on which even the thistles and docks now just put in an 

 appearance ! 



