REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 103 



of them are also " feeing fairs " for men and women servants. 

 Farm-servants of all classes are paid their wages mostly entirely 

 in money, and more so of late years, and rather less in amount 

 generally at present than some 10 to 15 years back. Steady 

 married ploughmen receive about £21 per annum, free cottage 

 with a " kail-yard " attached generally, about 5 loads of oat- 

 meal, and one or two other small perquisites. Good unmarried 

 ploughmen receive from £17 to £18 per year, with bed and 

 board. Many of the larger farmers in the Kilmarnock district 

 are now paying their ploughmen, married and unmarried, simply 

 at the rate of 12s. per week throughout the year, and 20s. as a 

 harvest present. Extra men hands as needed are fee'd for the 

 hairst, at wages of from 14s. to 15s. per week with bed and 

 board. Women days-wagers, for ordinary farm work and for 

 hay time and harvest, are plentiful, receiving for the former 

 from lOd. to Is. per day, and during the latter seasons from 20d. 

 to 2s., without victuals. Dairy women, to take full charge, 

 from £11 to £13 yearly, with board; second-class and assistant 

 girls from £6 to £10 or so, according to age and qualifications. 



Immorality, as shewn by illegitimate children, has no connec- 

 tion with the science or business of farming. Country servants 

 in that respect are no worse — probably not so bad, if the whole 

 truth was got at — than their compeers or other folks in towns. 

 The greater or less proportion of illegitimates arises, neither from 

 kitchens, nor cottages, nor bothies, but from the good or bad 

 state of morals prevailing. The per centage of illegitimacy in 

 Ayrshire is 1 per. cent, under the average for Scotland — viz., 90 

 (of which the larger proportion must be placed to the manufac- 

 turing and mining population), whilst the neighbouring shire of 

 Wigtown — with neither manufactures nor mines — has the high- 

 est per centage in Scotland— viz. 190 ; and yet the kitchen and 

 cottage systems of housing and boarding male and female 

 country servants prevails in both counties exactly alike — with 

 this difference, that the masters and mistresses in Ayrshire look 

 sharper after the outgoings and incomings of their young men 

 and maidens, and associate more with them, setting them good 

 example as well as frequently giving them good advice ; whereas, 

 in Galloway, from the higher style of living adopted by the 

 lamer class of farmers there, the masters and mistresses seldom 

 see their servants out of or after work-hours — far less associate 

 with them, and the latter being thus very much left to the free- 

 dom of their own wills, and no lack of opportunity, the conse- 

 quences in due time appear in the 19 per cent, as above ! A 

 healthy religious element has for long existed within the class 

 of small farmers, and of farm servants generally, in Ayrshire, 

 and long may it continue. 



With regard to the Law of Hypothec, as to which Ayrshire 



