18 ON THE AGRICULTURE OF 



as are best suited for the process, when the crop is exceptionally 

 clean. The weight per bushel of this season's (1880) rye-grass 

 seed averages from 23 lbs. to 28 lbs., and the price realised for it 

 is from Is. to Is. 3d. less per boll of 4 bushels than the price of 

 that sampled in Ayrshire. 



Eye-grass seed is invariably mixed with clover, and the second 

 growth of clover in a season such as 1880 could hardly be matched 

 in any part of Scotland. On Mid Ascog and Colmac this season 

 (1880) there has been a crop of great bulk, which has been win- 

 nowed and stored for fodder. 



Cattle ami Dairy -farming. 



The native breed of cattle in Bute, which were presumably of 

 Highland origin, although many of them were polled, have long 

 been superseded by the Ayrshires. Dairy-farming is one of the 

 principal departments of the rural economy of the island, and as 

 the demand for dairy produce increased, so it became the interest 

 of the farmers to meet it by improving their herds, and increas- 

 ing the milking qualities of their cows. We are able with tolerable 

 certainty to establish the date when the first Ayrshires were 

 introduced. The earliest occasion on which a prize was specially 

 awarded at the annual show for Avrshire cows was in 1830, but the 

 breed had been in the island fully a quarter of a century before 

 that date. Among tlie first, if not the very first, to introduce 

 Ayrshires, was Mr Thomas Stevenson, who in 1803 came from 

 Neilston, in Eenfrewshire, to the farm of Edinmore, and brought 

 with him a number of Ayrshire calves, which were brought over 

 by ferry from Largs to Scoulag, and were then travelled across 

 the island to the west side, near Colmac. Mr William Barr also 

 came from Ayrshire about the same time, and brought with him 

 a small stock of the breed of his native county. These gentle- 

 men were followed soon after by Mr Johnstone, the father of the 

 present tenant of West St Colmac, who came from West Kilbride, 

 Ayrshire, in 1809, and by Mr Eobert Hunter, ]\iid St Colmac, 

 also an Ayrshire man, both of whom brought herds of pure bred 

 Ayrshires with them. The cattle brought in by these strangers 

 must have soon commended themselves to the natives, because we 

 find that the Stewarts of Balichrach and Baluachrach, who are said 

 to be a family resident in Bute for about three hundred years, have 

 long had excellent herds of Ayrshire cows. The herd presently 

 on the farm of Baluachrach or Upper Ardroscadale, was founded 

 by the late Mr Eobert Stewart in May 1833, from purchases 

 made in the island. A bull was bought from the late Eev. 

 Alexander M'Bride, minister of the parish, and afterwards of the 

 Free Church, Korth Bute, which greatly improved the breed, and 

 sires have been introduced from the mainland \¥hich have main- 



