272 EEPOET ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



greater part of the county, from its undulating character, is very 

 diversified in scenery, exhibiting an attractive blending of hill 

 and dale. Many parts of it are well wooded, and the planta- 

 tions have generally been placed to please the eye as well as to 

 afford shelter and serve other purposes. This is true in an 

 eminent degree of the parish of Johnstone, which is on the pro- 

 perty of Mr Hope Johnstone of Annandale, and of the district 

 surrounding Drumlanrig Castle, one of the seats of the Duke of 

 Buccleuch. The largest portion of waste land in the county is 

 Lochar Moss, which is situated to the south-east of the town of 

 Dumfries, and extends to several thousand acres. Small parts of 

 it on the outskirts have been reclaimed ; but it is so fiat and 

 difficult to make dry, that we fear it will remain unproductive 

 for many years to come. The rock at the mouth of the Lochar 

 has been cut, and the proprietors along its course are uniting in 

 an attempt to deepen the bed of the stream. 



Section I. — Soil and Climate. 



1. Soil. — Although there is much diversity in the soil of Dum- 

 friesshire, yet it may truly be said of the lower parts of the 

 county that the soil is generally light and kindly, being mostly 

 underlaid with rock, gravel, or sand. About one-half of the 

 arable land of the county is naturally dry, and does' not require 

 drainage, some of it being upon freestone, some on whinstone, 

 and still more upon gravel. Large parts of Nithsdale and upper 

 Annandale are composed of dry soil, while in the other districts 

 there are large tracts of land which required drainage, some of it 

 being of a black mossy surface, and part of the remainder thin 

 clay. 



It will thus be seen that gravel and sand prevail much in the 

 soils of this county. Most of the ridges and knolls in the larger 

 dales and lateral vales consist of gravel. Muir soils are also 

 very extensive, and are in various stages of cultivation. This 

 whitestone land is well known in this county as a soil naturally 

 barren, though much improvement has been wrought upon it 

 generally. Considerable tracts of valuable loam soil are found 

 in Dumfriesshire, and spots of it are interspersed among other 

 soils on the low and gentle slopes of the hills. Alluvial soil 

 abounds along the margins of the rivers and streams. It is 

 called holm land, and varies greatly in respect of depth and 

 richness. Peat moss exists in great fields both in the hills and 

 vales. In many instances it has been drained and converted 

 into soil. When clay is found as a soil it is commonly not deep, 

 and is such as in other counties would be called thin clay. It 

 exists, however, pretty extensively as a subsoil. 



It is difficult to arrive at an estimate of the average agri- 



