328 REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



The whole of the sheep are clipped in June, and the wool 

 disposed of to local buyers or sent to the sales. This, then, is 

 the general system followed out in the mixed system of agricul- 

 ture ; but frequently, instead of cows being kept to rear calves 

 for grazing or feeding purposes, a dairy is substituted, and cheese 

 made ; which system, owing to the high price this valuable pro- 

 duction has for the last two or three years been realising, is now 

 becoming very general. 



We have thus, described the mixed system ; and next in order 

 comes arable farming ; and we must here remark that, in the 

 strictest sense of the term, there is no thorough arable farming 

 done in Dumfriesshire, by which we mean the continuous crop- 

 ping of the land, as is the case in the Carses of Gowrie and 

 Stirling, and most of the highly farmed counties of England. 

 Arable farming is principally carried on in middle and lower 

 Annandale and Mthsdale, the farms varying from 60 or 70 to 

 .500 acres in extent, the average being about 200, and the system 

 generally adopted is the simple five-course shift, although, owing 

 to stock having paid so well for the last six years, until the sudden 

 downfall in the value of sheep within the last twelve months, 

 many farmers have embraced the six-course rotation. The five- 

 course shift is, however, looked upon as the legitimate one, many 

 proprietors making it a rule to have a clause inserted in their 

 leases, whereby the tenant is bound to carry out the fifth rotation; 

 and the system of cropping is as follows : — First — oats (almost 

 always), barley, or wheat ; second — turnips, potatoes, mangolds, 

 beans, or fallow ; third — oats, barley, or wheat; fourth — seeds sown 

 out, either cut or depastured by stock ; fifth — second year's grass. 

 Thus, on a farm of 200 acres, there are 80 acres white and 40 

 of green crop, the remainder being grass, part of which may be 

 cut for hay or not, at the farmer's discretion. Very little wheat 

 is grown in Dumfriesshire, the climate being too moist, while 

 the soil is not sufficiently strong ; so that oats and barley are 

 the principal grain crops grown ; but by far the greatest propor- 

 tion is in oats. On the management of the second rotation — 

 that is, for green crops — entirely depends the condition of the 

 land until this rotation again comes round ; for if it be well 

 cultivated, thoroughly cleaned, and liberally manured, the effect 

 will be apparent for years, and tell equally for good on the 

 land, as a badly managed green crop break will for the reverse. 

 On an arable farm the grain grown is mostly sold, although, 

 of course, a proportion is used for the feeding of horses, cattle, 

 sheep, and pigs ; the good potatoes marketed, and the turnips 

 partly consumed in the house by cattle, and partly by sheep on 

 the ground. On a medium sized arable farm, say of 250 acres, 

 a certain proportion of cattle and sheep are generally kept ; 

 but where there is a dairy, of course, it is very seldom that 



