COUNTY OF STIRLING. 167 



ploughed somewhat deeply, and then sown. This practice is 

 adopted on some farms where dung can be readily obtained, and 

 it is considered a safe plan, as not much reliance can be placed 

 on the turnip crop where the laud is heavy and stiff*. From two 

 to two and a half bushels of wheat are sown with the hands on 

 a Scotch acre of fallow ; as the season advances the quantity of 

 seed is increased up to four bushels an acre. The seed wheat is 

 dressed with bluestone at the rate of one pound to four bushels, 

 which prevents ball, and hardens the .seed. After the wheat 

 crop has been removed, the stubble is dunged for beans at the 

 rate of twenty to twenty-five tons to the acre. Turnips are 

 generally dunged in the drill ; ninety square yards of police dung 

 is allowed to the acre when no artificial manure is added. Hay 

 is top-dressed with from f to Ih cwt. of nitrate of soda to the 

 acre, sown at two times, allowing an interval of two weeks. 

 Oats are similarly treated. Friesland oats are grown on many 

 farms, a very prolific sort, weighing 38 to 41 lbs. a bushel, and 

 yielding a good proportion of meal. Where land is very rough, 

 bare fallow becomes necessary ; but in many instances wheat is 

 superior after a green crop, being stiffer in the straw, and not so 

 liable to o^et lodcjed. Wheat after fallow sometimes f?ets thrown 

 out with frost in spring, in which case it does not ripen regularly, 

 and affords a poor and thin sample of grain. 



Cattle — Horses — >S7i ecp. 



Since the Earl of Dunmore's herd was dispersed there has 

 been no first-class breed of shorthorned cattle in tlie county ; 

 but there are still some very fair specimens, among which may 

 be noted those of Colonel Murray of Polmaise ; Mr Paterson, 

 riean ; Mr Buchanan, Whitehouse ; Mr Mackenzie, Xorthfield ; 

 Mr Malcolm, Dunmore home farm ; Mr Sim, Mains of Pow- 

 fo wlis ; and ^Ir Christie, Bankend. But although breeders of cattle 

 are few, there are some successful exhibitors, who have success- 

 fully studied the physiology of nutrition, and know how to 

 manage cattle. They have had materials analysed with a view 

 to ascertain their adaptation to the feeding and fattening of 

 cattle ; and, Ijesides the natural products of the soil, such as 

 grass, turnips, and straw, auxiliaries such as cake, corn, and 

 potatoes, have been added to facilitate the production of good 

 beef. In the carse, cattle are bought in autumn, and wintered 

 on bean chafT with a little cake, after which they are sold for 

 grazing if not tit for the butcher. Of the cattle thus purchased 

 and fed some are shorthorns, but generally they are of cross 

 breeds. On dryfield farms the custom is to obtain at the autumn 

 markets a su])ply of cattle, those for feeding at the earlier, and 

 those for wintering at the later markets. The feeding cattle get 



