REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 279 



the most central and populous locality. The stimulus which 

 these facilities gave to improvement cannot hut he obvious to 

 even the most cursory observer. 



Another advantage which resulted from the opening up of all 

 parts of the county by railways (which has been amply done by the 

 Caledonian, Glasgow and South- Western, and North British sys- 

 tems), was the bringing into the county, and the conveying through- 

 out it, of artificial manures and lime. The farmers in the inland 

 districts had to cart these articles such very long distances that 

 sometimes the expense of doing so, as in the article of lime, was 

 so great as to exceed the original cost of the lime itself ; hence 

 they were applied more sparingly than they w r ould have been if 

 they could have been more readily obtained. Guano, bones, and 

 other artificial manures, were imported to Annan and Dumfries; 

 but these places, as well as Kelhead, Closeburn, and other lime- 

 kilns, w r ere situated at long distances from the higher districts, 

 for which lime at least was best adapted, and to which it has 

 recently been most extensively applied ; hence the farmers in the 

 upper parts of all the three dales of which the county is com- 

 posed could only improve their land by incurring an unusually 

 great expense, which they were naturally slow to do, simply 

 because it might not prove remunerative. When the railways 

 were opened, all these articles were conveyed to the different 

 stations at a much cheaper rate than the cartage of them would 

 have cost, and therefore they are at the present time tenfold more 

 used than formerly. Lime can be laid down in many parts of 

 the county at about one-half what it cost previous to the intro- 

 duction of railways ; while in other remote parts, such as Beattock, 

 it costs only one-third of what it did at that period. 



2. A second cause which contributed largely to the rapid 

 advancement which agriculture has made in Dumfriesshire within 

 the memory of living men, is the introduction and gradually 

 extended use of bones, guano, and other artificial manures. 

 Until 1822, no other, except farm-yard manure, was in use in the 

 county, for the cultivated land. In that year, Mr Hepburn 

 entered upon a lease of the farm of Cumrue, in the parish of Kirk- 

 michael; and we believe he was the first in the district to use bones 

 as a manure, at least to any extent. His farming was, in conse- 

 quence, very conspicuous, and attracted much attention through- 

 out the county. His example was gradually followed by some of 

 the more enterprising farmers of the county, until a belief in the 

 beneficial effects of bones as a manure was pretty widely estab- 

 lished. By-and-by guano came gradually into use, and rose so 

 high in the favour of many, that some expected it to supersede 

 bones altogether; but it was soon found out that it partook 

 of the nature of a forcing manure, and imparted little or no 

 permanent richness to the soil ; hence it came to be used along 



