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STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



The state of property and husbandry of the country may be considered as the same as that of the other 

 mountainous districts. The black faced sheep are in almost universal use, excepting in milder situations, 

 where the Cheviot has been introduced. There is no commerce but by retail, and only some very trifling 

 woollen manufactures in the county. 



In the Appendix an account is given of the improvement of the Whim, a flow-moss of 100 acres, twenty 

 feet deep, and at an elevation of 700 feet above the level of the sea. It was begun to be drained in 1731, 

 and in ten years a mansion was built, and surrounded by woods and pleasure-grounds, which shew, as the 

 Duke of Buccleugh, the proprietor, intended, the wonderful influence of art over nature. " The planta- 

 tions (originally extensive) have been improved and enlarged since the property came into possession of 

 the Lord Chief Baron ; and he has also greatly enlarged the house, adding a court of offices, upon a large 

 scale, and ornamented in front, extending also the lawn. The place has, upon the whole, an air of magni- 

 ficence. In the pleasure-grounds, there are several artificial pieces of water. East of the house (where 

 the soil is dry, and covered with sweet grasses) the surface is agreeably diversified by gentle swells, tufted 

 with trees. A wild wilderness walk, through a small wood, lands you upon the banks of an artificial lake, 

 with islands, covering an extent of six or seven acres of surface. What chiefly strikes the visitor at 

 Whim, is the strongly marked contrast betwixt the improvements of human art, and nature in her wildest 

 form, here found in immediate contact. Your ears are, at once, saluted with the warblings of the black- 

 bird and thrush, from the plantations ; and the wild notes of the plover, the curlew, the grouse, and other 

 moss birds from the flow-moss." {Findlater's Report, 8fc. 1804.) 



7053. DUMFRIESSHIRE. 644,385 acres of maritime, vale, and mountain lands, in the proportion of 

 1, 4, and 7. The climate is variable, comparatively mild, but moist. The soil of the maritime district is 

 li,'?ht, and generally on sand, gravel, or rock; thatof the vale ormidlanddistrictisgravelly, sandy or moory. 

 The mountains are of schist, whinstone, or red freestone, and thinly covered with corresponding soils or 

 moss. In some places they are covered with dry pasture, but more frequently with a mixture of grass and 

 heath. The principal metallic ore found in the county is lead ; but several others, as iron, copper, antimony, 

 &c. exist, and the latter has been worked. Coal has been found, but not in strata sufficiently thick to be 

 workable. Marble also and slate have been worked, and lime, freestone, and whinstone, in abundance. 

 There are several mineral springs in the mountain district, the principal of which is the spaw, at Moffat. 

 Fish, and especially salmon, are caught in moderate quantities in the Nith and Annan. The celebrated 

 improver, Craik, was a proprietor in this county, at Ardbigland, near Dumfries, now the property of his 

 son. IDr. Singer's General View, 1812.) 



1. Minerals. 



The had mines occupy very barren fp-ounds, remarkably 

 bleak and elevated; but they are a great fund of industry and 

 riches, and they furnish a part of the county with an excellent 

 market for the surplus grain produced in that part. Lead- 

 hills, with the mines, are in the county of Lanark, and belong 

 to the Earl of Hopetown, who draws about 7000/. a year from 

 these mines. Wanlockhead mine is in Dumfriesshire, belongs 

 to the Duke of Queensberry, and returns to the proprietor near 

 5000/. a year. 



2. Property 



In large estates, owned by 453 persons. The Duke of 

 Buccleugn's estate of very great extent. Some estates are 

 managed by their owners, and others by commissioners having 

 power to let. In large properties it is common to entrust the 

 collecting rents, and arrangements relative to leases, buildings, 

 fences, and courses of crops, to factors residing on or near the 

 lands, who represent their constituents (if not personally pre- 

 sent) in county and parish meetings. Millar, of Dalswinton, 

 has gone over an estate of 5000 acres, in twenty-five years, and 

 improved the whole of it, with the exception of a portion 

 which is now under process, and promises to be soon completed. 

 His plan is, not to farm his lands himself, but to prepare them, 

 by impiovement, for being let to farmers. 



3. Buildings. 



While the reporter expatiates on the ample accommodations 

 of the modem tarm-houses in this and other counties, he gives 

 the following information as to cottages, which we regret to 

 lind seem by no means improved either in this or in other 

 parts of Scotland in the same ratio as the habitations of inferior 

 animals. " A common, and not inconvenient cottage, is put 

 up as follows; viz., stone and lime walls, seven feet high, 

 thirty-six feet long, and fourteen to sixteen feet wide within ; 

 the roof of Scots fir, which is preserved from the worm by 

 smoke, and covered with thatch ; a chimney at one end, and 

 an open passage for smoke in the other ; affording two apart- 

 ments below, one of them a kitchen, and a central apartment 

 opposite to the door ; the one end boarded over, and the other 

 open. Such a cottage may be erected for about 30/. or 40/. ; 

 and, with half a rood for a garden, it would let at 51. a year or 

 more, according to its finishing." Doubtless the reverend 

 gentleman makes but short prayers when he visits the sick in 

 such smoky cottages : the surgeon may speak to his patient 

 through the window. * 



4. Occupation. 



Sheep farms from 300 to 3000 acres ; arable farms from 50 

 to coo acres. Leases universal, and generally for nineteen 

 or twenty-one years. Wilkie's variation of Small's plough is 

 in general use, as clearing the mould-board better in soft 

 soils. The Berwickshire system of culture is practised on the 

 tumin soils ; the East Lothian on such as are loamy or clayey ; 

 and the store system on the mountain district. The cattle are 

 of the Galloway breed, and sheep. Cheviots, or the black faced 

 mountain kind. More poultry is kept than in most other 

 counties, in order to consume the light grain. Many of the 

 fowls and eggs go to Edinburgh ; but the greater part of the 

 produce and sales in eggs go in small oval baskets, packed in 

 carts, to Berwick, for the London market. In one or two 

 instances the holcus lanatus has been cultivatetl on reclaimed 

 bogs with success, but is intended to be succeeded by better 

 grasses as soon as they will bear them. The drill culture of 

 turnips was introduced bj Craik, about 1745. Draining has 

 been extensively practised ; irrigation in a few plac s, and some 

 embankments made on the Solway Firth, and the Nith and 

 Annan. There are few orchards. Some remains of coppice 

 and forest, which, according to appearances and authentic 

 records, seem in former times to have spread over great part of 

 the county ; and numerous young plantations. Some years 

 aijo many young Scotch firs died from the attacks of the Teredo 

 jiinorum, as some suppose ; but the cause does not seem clearly 



known. Some very large oaks, beeches, elms, ashes, and larch 

 firs, are described in the report. 

 ^ 5. Improvements. 



As a specimen we shall give some notices of what has been 

 ^ one on the estate of Mount Annan, by Gen. Dirom. The ex- 



ent of Mount Annan estate is 2750 acres. The major began 

 his improvements in 1793, and planted before 1819, 168 acres. 

 Assisted in laying out a considerable extent of public road and 

 building bridges, the road passing through the estate. Made 

 an improvement in the construction of lime kilns, since per- 

 fected by Booker, of Dublin.(3589.) The lime quarried and dried 

 by means of a small stream from more elevated lands ; this 

 stream being made to turn an overshot wheel, which works two 

 pumps. The village of Bridekirk begun in 1800 (3575.) on the 

 new road, and where the river Annan affords ample falls for ma- 

 chinery. Farms arranged of different sizes, and three eminent 

 farmers settled with a view to improvement. Cottage farms one 

 or two ; cottages ; improved stock on the demesne farm ; im- 

 proved farm buildings ; leases for fifteen jrears ; stone quarries 

 opened, others drained and improved ; brick clay found, and 

 bricksmade; salmon fishery improved. Irrigation, fiorin, spring 

 wheat, moss composts, mole plough, and steaming apparatus, 

 introduced. A cross moss-cutting machine, invented by the 

 overseer, William HoUiday, for cutting the furrows across in 

 improving moor, instead of cross-ploughing, which is not only a 

 vei7 laborious operation, but seldom succeeds in cutting them 

 into small enough pieces, so as to be afterwards easily harrowed. 

 This machine consists of two circular knives, if they may be 

 so called, six inches deep in the blade, with a blunt edge, fixed 

 upon and embracing the whole of the exterior circle of two 

 small broad wheels, and as they go round the knives cut the 

 furrows across. The axle and frame of a roller are used for 

 these wheels, so that the weight may be encreased by loading 

 the box of the frame, if it should be necessary to make the 

 knives cut through the furrows. It is dragged with great ease 

 across the ploughed moor by one horse ; and, when it is moist, 

 the furrows are cut through with the greatest facility, in pieces 

 of any length, according to the number of turns taken by the 

 machine. The furrows, when a little dry, are then turned 

 over by the brake (break) harrow, and being all cut into small 

 pieces, are in the best state for lieing reduced by repeated har- 

 rowing, or for being thrown together in heaps and burnt. 



6. Weekly Reports. 



" In carrying on the improvements which have been men- 

 tioned, at a considerable distance from my general residence, 

 they have been greatly facilitated by reauiring my overseer, or 

 manager, to send me a weekly report of what was doing upon 

 the farm and the estate. It shows how the servants and horses 

 have been employed during every day, contains a journal of the 

 weather, and of the prepress of "ditferent works, and a state of 

 his receipts and disbursements during the week. These re- 

 ports, besides enabling one to judge of what is doing, and to 

 give any directions that may be necessary, are extremely 

 useful to refer to, and excite the overseer and servants to be 

 diligent in mv absence.'' 



Increase of population on the estate in fifteen years, 396; 

 viz. from 175 to 571 inhabitants. Total exjjense of purchase 

 and improvements up to 1811, ZOfiOQl. Clear annual rental 

 at that time, 2000/. a year, exclusive of the value of timber and 

 of the mansion, garden, and hot-house, &c. as a gentleman's 

 residence. 



7. Political Economy. 



Improving roads, and some canals and railways ; some com- 

 merce by sea with the port of Dumfries ; manufactures incon- 

 siderable; paper, stockings by frames, muslin weavers. A 

 small iron-work at Kirkconnell, in which from three to four 

 dozen spades daily are made. Cotton spinning and weaving 

 in a few places. Carpet weaving, &c. " Salt, from the rich 

 est parts of the sea sleech, collected with horse drags, in dry 

 weather in summer, and then placed so as to be washed and 

 filtered, and the brine that runs out of it boiled.** 



