280 REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



with bones, sometimes in a raw state, and often in a manufactured 

 form. 



But highly beneficial to the soil as these and other artificial 

 manures were, and great as was the stimulus which their appli- 

 cation gave to agricultural improvement in the county, they 

 proved all the more so from the fact that turnip cultivation 

 became necessarily so important a part of the arable farmer's 

 work. Dumfriesshire was, previous to the potato failure, un- 

 usually well adapted for the growth of that root, and large 

 quantities of them were grown; but after the failure, it became 

 as ill adapted for their growth as previously it had been suitable; 

 hence the attention of the arable farmer was earnestly turned to 

 turnip husbandry, which had not hitherto been much practised, 

 and was imperfectly understood. Experience showed that the 

 farm-yard manure, when applied by itself, was not sufficient to 

 produce a full crop of turnips. It was found that some forcing 

 manure, like guano, was necessary to bring away the plants at 

 the earlier stages of their growth, and that that farm-yard 

 manure, supplemented by bones, was required to sustain them 

 throughout the later stages. The application of these artificial 

 manures not only enables the farmer to raise a more weighty, 

 and therefore more valuable, green crop, but it further, both 

 directly and indirectly, improves the condition of the land — 

 directly, by the additional strength which it imparts to it ; and 

 indirectly, by the large proportion of turnips which are in the 

 habit of being consumed upon the land by sheep. There is no 

 better method of leading any one to understand how much 

 Dumfriesshire as a county owes its agricultural prosperity of late 

 years to the use of artificial manures, than by asking him to 

 conceive an embargo put upon the use of such manures. Why, 

 such a result would place the county in a much worse position 

 than it occupied during the first quarter of the present century ; 

 for the arable farmer would not have the potato crop to fall back 

 upon, as was then so largely the case ; and experience has shown 

 that unless the farm- yard manure is supplemented by artificial 

 manures, turnips cannot be cultivated so as to be remunerative 

 in any great degree. 



3. Drainage is an indispensable condition to the agricultural 

 improvement of such a county as Dumfriesshire. It has been 

 carried out to a large extent, though much yet remains to be 

 done. It may be said generally, that about one-half of the land 

 in the county which required draining has been drained, and 

 that the other half has yet to be overtaken. Fully L. 71,000 of 

 the Government Drainage money was expended in Dumfries- 

 shire, for which, as our readers are doubtless aware, interest 

 has to be paid at the rate of 6£ per cent, for the period of 

 twenty-two years. The expense of the remainder has been 



