270 EEPORT ON THE AGKICULTUKE OF DUMFKIESSHIBE. 



sickly show it in the foliage, which is easier observed than at 

 any other period of the year. 



The state of health of pine and fir plantations is most easily 

 observed in June. At that season trees far gone with decay be- 

 come brown, while those becoming sickly show it in their leaves 

 being shorter and of a clotted appearance. 



EEPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



By the Rev. John Gillespie, A.M., Mouswald Manse, Dumfries. 



[Premium — Thirty Sovereigns.'] 



Introductory Remarks — General Description of the County. 



The large and important county of Dumfries is pleasantly 

 situated on the north shore of the Solway Frith. It is bounded 

 on the north by the counties of Lanark, Peebles, and Selkirk ; 

 on the east, by part of Eoxburgh and Cumberland ; on the south, 

 by the Solway Frith ; and on the west, by the stewartry of 

 Kirkcudbright and the county of Ayr. In form, it is irregularly 

 ellipsoidal, the greater diameter extending from the mountain 

 of Corsoncone, in the county of Ayr, to Liddel Mount, in the 

 county of Roxburgh, runs in a south-easterly direction, and 

 measures about fifty miles ; and the lesser diameter, from Loch 

 Craig, in the confines of Peeblesshire, to the mouth of the Nith, 

 near the Castle of Caerlaverock, extends in a direction west of 

 south, and measures about thirty-two miles. Its ellipsoidal 

 form is not only irregular in every part of the circumference, 

 but in three parts it is much indented by the bounding lines of 

 other districts and counties. These indentations are formed by 

 the southern point of Lanarkshire extending to ten miles, by 

 Ettrick Head (five miles) in Selkirkshire, and by the parish of 

 Terregles (three miles) which lies at the exterior angle formed 

 by the rivers Nith and Clouden, which are the boundaries of the 

 county in that quarter. In latitude it extends from 55° 2' to 

 55° 31', and in longitude from 2° 39' to 3° 53' west from 

 London. 



The county is divided into three dales or basins, which take 

 their names from the three streams by which they are drained — 

 the Nith, the Annan, and the Esk. The valleys of Nithsdale, 

 Annandale, and Eskdale are almost parallel, and are separated 

 from each other by ridges of various elevations. Annandale, 

 which is in the centre, contains twenty-one parishes, and the 

 valuation of it in 1866-7 amounted to L.181,018, 13s. Id. Niths- 

 dale, on the west of the county, has seventeen parishes, and its 

 valued rental in 1866-7 was L.162,285, 12s. Id. Eskdale, which 



