REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 311 



pastures in May until about the 1st November. During the 

 winter months skim-milk cheese and butter are made. The 

 extremely high rate at which milk can be sold in Glasgow 

 during the months of January, February, and March, and the 

 great facilities afforded by the Caledonian Railway Company for 

 its transmission, have induced many to send thither large 

 quantities of milk at that period. It is highly important, in 

 a philanthropic point of view, that large quantities of milk 

 should be sent into such populous towns as Glasgow. A serious 

 obstacle to its transmission " all the year round " is, that from its 

 perishable nature it is apt to become useless while being con- 

 veyed during the hot weather. We will be surprised, however, 

 if, in this inventive age, means are not devised to overcome the 

 difficulty. The calves are sold when a day or two old, and 

 realise from 6s. to 7s. each. Some dairymen, however, prefer 

 to fatten their calves, the earlier calved ones, after being kept 

 for six or seven weeks, bringing from L.2 10s. to L.3 each. The 

 later ones cannot be kept so long, and do not command such 

 a large price, as the calves are always cleared out before cheese- 

 making is commenced at the middle of May. Some farmers who 

 manage their own dairies put a Shorthorn bull to their cows, and 

 rear the calves as store cattle. 



The agricultural statistics have never been collected in such a 

 form as to determine how many Ayrshires were in the county at 

 any particular period. Their number, in comparison with the 

 other breeds, is therefore a matter of conjecture. Five and twenty 

 years ago, Galloways were the universal breed, with the exception 

 of the Ayreshire cows in a few dairies, and a few Shorthorns close 

 upon the Border. Now every arable farmer, almost without excep- 

 tion, in at least four or five of the parishes of upper Nithsdale, 

 has a dairy, and the system prevails more or less in the whole of 

 that dale, while Ayrshire cows are kept on many of the farms in 

 every part of middle and upper Annandale. The increase of 

 Ayrshires in point of numbers, and how the fashion has set in 

 in their favour, may be inferred from the fact that, whereas, at 

 the time we specify, it was never dreamt of to offer a prize for 

 them at a local show, now an equal number of prizes are given 

 for them at almost all local shows as for any other breed of cattle, 

 and the attention of the public is divided between the prize-takers 

 belonging to the two breeds. A further idea of the extent of 

 that increase may be gathered from the fact, that whereas there 

 were only 14,025 milch cows in the county in 1855, there were, 

 as we have seen, 15,861 in 1866, showing an increase in eleven 

 years of 1836, or fully one-eighth. Even more than the above 

 number of Ayrshires would be added in that time, for the 

 Galloways are diminishing almost as much as the Ayrshires are 

 increasing. 



