REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 271 



is the eastern division, contains only five parishes, and was 

 valued in 1866-7 at L.46,256, 19s. 9d. The whole extent of the 

 county is 1129 square miles, or 722,813 statute acres, and its 

 valued rental at the present time is L.389,561, 4s. lid. The 

 estates of the different proprietors are very various in extent 

 and value. The Duke of Buccleuch owns more than one-fifth of 

 the valued rental of the county. There is one estate over 

 L.20,000, one L.12,000, one L.10,000, four from L.6000 to L.10,000, 

 twelve from L.3000 to L.6000, twenty-five from L.1000 to L.3000. 

 More than three-fourths of the above proprietors are resident in 

 the county, at least during the greater part of the year. 



All the northern part of every one of the three dales is very 

 mountainous, but Eskdale has a much greater proportion of hill 

 pasture in comparison to its arable land than either of the other 

 two. Along the northern boundary there are several summits 

 ranging from fully 3000 to about 2000 feet above sea level. 

 Almost all the mountains, whether on the boundary or in the in- 

 terior, have an inconsiderable basis, a rapid acclivity, and summits 

 in some instances round-backed or flattened, in others conical, 

 and in a few tabular or flat. The area of the hill pastures 

 (strictly so-called) is 498,364 acres. There are large tracts of 

 permanent pasture at an intermediate altitude between the hills 

 and the arable land. It is impossible to arrive at a correct 

 estimate of the exact extent of this class of land, because, 

 while there are 72,550 acres returned as permanent pasture not 

 broken up in rotation, a considerable portion of it is situated in 

 the lower districts of the county. 132,039 acres were under 

 rotation in 1866. Only a very small portion of this is in the 

 eastern division — the parish of Canonbie and a stripe of the 

 southern part of Langholm being the only portion of Eskdale 

 which is under cultivation. There are indeed patches here and 

 there under crops in all the other three parishes, but these 

 parishes are almost entirely hilly and mountainous. The culti- 

 vated part of Nithsdale is about twenty-five miles in length, 

 and its breadth varies at different points. The arable part of 

 Annandale extends from Moffat to Annan, a distance of about 

 twenty-six miles ; and while at the head the dale is very narrow, 

 it extends at the bottom to a breadth of fifteen or sixteen miles. 



The lower portion of the county, comprising lower Annandale 

 and the most southerly parish of Eskdale, is comparatively low 

 and flat, and is only occasionally marked by low hills. Ten 

 miles of the lower portion of Nithsdale is in all respects a plain, 

 with the exception of a short range of low hills in the parish of 

 Dumfries, and the Mouswald and Torthorwald " heights," which 

 divide the plain from the basin of the Annan. Annandale has 

 within its bounds several minor dales, which are formed by the 

 Milk, Dryfe, Wamphray, Moffat, and Kinnel waters. The 



