16 J: THE AGRICULTURE OF THE 



an excellent stock of Ayrshires, and a well-managed farm, which 

 he has greatly improved, and one of the most airy, comfortable 

 byres in the district. He has four pairs of horses in spring, 

 besides one for the milk- van, and he breeds some good Clydes- 

 dales. Cheese -making is prosecuted only in the height of 

 summer. In the early part of the season calves are reared, and 

 milk is sent to Glasgow, but the arrangement with the milk 

 merchant is that the deliverv of milk mav cease on a short notice 

 given by either party. No butter is made on the farm except 

 from the ligjht cream that collects on the whev, and the cream 

 taken from milk used in the house and on the farm, where the 

 workino' men have an allowance of skimmed milk. In winter 

 the cows giving milk get cooked turnips, with steamed chaff and 

 meal three times a day ; the others get turnips and straw. Pigs 

 are a suitable accompaniment where there is cheese-making, and 

 Mr Fleming has the whey conveyed in a pipe from the cheese 

 room to the piggery. Mr Archibald, Gartfieran, has 37 pure Ayr- 

 shire cows. Every season he rears about 20 calves, which pay 

 very well. The calves get warm milk till about the 24th of 

 May, when they are turned out to the grass, after which tliey 

 get cake mixed with water once a day, and also salt and water, 

 which they like, and which is very beneficial. They come in as 

 young cows at three years old, but, if kept w^ell, a year earlier. 

 From the 24th of May cheese-making progresses till autumn, 

 when the milk is sent to Glasgow. The whole dairy w^ork of 

 the farm is managed by Mr Archibald's own family, which is 

 found to be a necessity, as efficient servants can hardly be got. 

 He has diminished the cropping of the farm, as grazing pays so 

 much better. Wages in the district are high. First men have 

 £17 in the half year, second and third hands less, with meal, 

 milk, and a free house and garden. Outworkers have Is. 6d. a 

 day, extra hands in times of pressure get 2s. and even 2s. 6d. 

 At hay-making they get 2s. 6d., and in harvest 3s. 4d. to 3s. 6d. 

 Mr Dykes, Blairnavid, Drymen, has a farm of 257 acres, 

 wholly arable, rented at £1, 8s. an acre. He has twenty-one 

 good Ayrshire cows, and sends milk to Glasgow, and has about 

 a dozen medals, gained at different times, for Ayrshires in the 

 parish of Old Monkland. He has a comfortable house and a 

 neat, well-kept steading. He has four horses and a pony, and 

 grows potatoes and turnips, for which he uses farm-yard manure 

 and dissolved bones, but less artificial manure than formerly for 

 potatoes, as the crop has become uncertain. Turnip lifting is let 

 by contract, at the rate of 7s. the imperial acre. Potatoes are 

 lifted in the same way, at the rate of 45s. to 50s. an acre. The 

 potato crop is regarded as a great difficulty by the farmers. It 

 has been the means of raising rents, and now is very precarious 

 and not so profitable as it once was. 



