290 REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



Five and twenty years ago it was not uncommon to take two 

 white crops in succession after the land was broken up from 

 pasture, but this practice has grown gradually into disuse, until 

 now it is seldom to be found, and that only in cases where the 

 crop is taken from land long out of rotation. Where this plan 

 was permitted the tenant was generally bound, by the terms of 

 the lease, to allow his land to remain longer in pasture than is 

 common under the present system. Thus, although the method 

 appears at first sight beneficial to the occupier, yet it was in 

 reality more advantageous for the landlord, for the " rest " which 

 the soil got while in pasture had the effect of improving its 

 condition. 



Section IV. — Com Crops. 



In 1866 there were 132,039 acres under rotation in the 

 county. These were divided as follows : — 49,577 acres of corn 

 crops ; 26,974 acres of green crops; 5039 acres of bare fallow; 

 50,449 acres under clover and artificial and other grasses under 

 rotation. There must be added to the above 72,550 acres of 

 permanent pasture, meadow or grass not broken up in rota- 

 tion (exclusive of hill pastures). The total of acreage, then, 

 under all kinds of crops, bare fallow and grass, amounts to 

 204,589. Thus the percentage of corn crops of the whole 

 acreage, under all kinds of crops, bare fallow and grass, is 24 - 2. 

 Only five counties in Scotland have a lower percentage of corn 

 crops in relation to the whole under rotation and in permanent 

 pasture than Dumfriesshire has. These are Eenfrew, 23 - 6 ; 

 Selkirk, 23-5; Ayr, 23-2; Kirkcudbright, 21-3; Argyle, 20-6. 

 The percentage in many of the remaining counties is very much 

 higher. We give a few examples of the highest : — Clackmannan, 

 421 ; Haddington, 41-6 ; Fife, 40-8 ; Forfar, 40-7 ; Kincardine, 

 401 ; Elgin or Moray, 39-5 ; Banff, 38-9 ; Koss, 381 ; Aberdeen, 

 37-5 ; Edinburgh, 35'3, &c. 



The 49,577 acres of corn crops comprise the following varieties: 

 — Wheat, 962 acres ; barley or bere, 1031 acres ; oats, 47,338 

 acres ; rye, 58 acres ; beans, 164 acres ; peas, 24 acres. 



As oats are the most largely cultivated corn crop, we shall 

 reat of them at the outset. There were, as we have seen, 47,338 

 acres of oats in the county in 1866, being 95'4 per cent, of the 

 whole corn crops grown within its bounds during that year. 

 Many varieties of oats are grown. " Potato " oats used to be 

 very extensively sown in most parts of the county — in all, indeed 

 except the higher districts. Latterly, however, this variety has 

 greatly diminished, and is not much found, unless in the lowei 

 districts, within six or eight miles of the Solway. " Sandy " and 

 " Early Argus/' occupy the- greatest breadth at the present time. 



