REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 81 



total value of the annual produce from the milch cows — viz., 

 £418,650. The £405,000 from the milk may be apportioned as 

 follows : — Sweet or full-milk cheese, £320,000 ; half-and-half 

 and skim-milk cheese, £25,000 ; butter, butter-milk, sweet- 

 milk, and skim-milk, £40,000 ; milk given to the calves reared, 

 £20,000. The wJiey for feeding pigs, over and above. The 

 " comparative insignificance of the cheese-interest," so remark 

 occasionally Messrs. Primefat, Bullocks, & Co. of Dunse and 

 Dunfermline. Not so very insignificant, gentlemen, as ye would 

 like to think it. 



Value of total annual produce from milch cows, . . £418,650 



Number of grass-fed cattle annually sold and^\ 



exported — say 0,000, young and old, at / „„ r™ 



£8, 10s. per head, exclusive of the 7s. per f 



head formerly charged as calves. J 



Grass-fattening of sheep of all ages alongst the ) . ,-v q™ 



coast, and pet sheep, drafted ewes, &c, inland, j" 

 Value of the whey for pig-feeding, ..... 18,000 



Deduct — 



Value of the cabbage acreage, . . . £8,000 



Value of the mangold acreage, . . . 10,500 

 Value of the vetches acreage, . . . 2,000 



Value of beanmeal and other feeding stuffs ) 

 given to milch cows. j 



£523,150 



15,000 41,500 



The fodder is compensated for by the manure. £481,650 



Divide the last sum by the acreage in rotation-pasture, including 

 the roupecl permanent-grass — 135,000 acres, and we get the sum 

 realized per acre of grass-land over the county — namely, £3, 10s., 

 or an approximation to it at all events. From the £3, 10s. per 

 acre deduct rent, servants' wages and board, keep for the farmer 

 and family, lime, deaths of cows, &c, and a nutshell will hold 

 in copper all that is left " to bank" — if anything at all. A living 

 may be made by dairy-farming in Ayrshire, but to '' make 

 money" by it is plainly impossible. The dairy farmers are 

 pretty comfortable, however, for all that, and the outcry occa- 

 sionally sent forth, more so we suspect than their stock-and- 

 crop brethren in the shore districts ; but they have far from a 

 " gentleman's life" of it, in the usual acceptation of that term, — 

 themselves, wives, sons and daughters, literally " from cockcrow 

 till noon, from noon till dewy eve," and all the year round, 

 being worked like slaves. Still our farmers' sons, and daughters 

 as well, are generally well-educated, and they are none the worse 

 of the hard work ; and no county in Scotland sends out so many 

 young men as land-stewards, &c, to England and Ireland, pro- 

 portionally even to size of county, as does Ayrshire. 



Butter making in Ayrshire, except for shire consumption, 

 and when contrasted with cheese, is of but small importance, 



v 



