SECRETARY'S REPORT. 3G9 



earnestly, to visit him, promising to take me all over the 

 country. This gave me an opportunity to explore that glorious 

 region to far better advantage than it would have been possible 

 otherwise, and I regret that I cannot give a longer account of 

 this wild section. 



Renfrew and Ayrshire lie to the south and west of Glasgow, 

 and are full of interest in an agricultural point of view. The 

 Ayrshire cow and the Clydesdale horse may be regarded as a 

 most noble contribution to modern agriculture by a section not 

 remarkable for richness of soil or the fertility of its pastures. 

 I introduced myself to the Secretary of the Ayrshire Agricul- 

 tural Society as soon as I arrived in Ayr and was indebted to 

 him for much civility. The character of the stock and tlie mode 

 of treatment were so fully stated in my treatise on the dairy, 

 and the observations there made were so fully confirmed that 

 any thing I might say here would be little more than repeti- 

 tion. I was surprised, however, to be informed by the secre- 

 tary, that they were getting dairy maids from Cheshire and 

 other parts of England, to teach them how to make cheese. 

 The Ayrshire stock is more generally distributed in Scotland 

 than I had supposed. Its popularity and excellence for the 

 dairy commends it to farmers who keep cows for their milk, and 

 good specimens are to be met w^ith in all parts of the country 

 even where other and local breeds predominate. I found the 

 reputation of the Ayrshires very high in all parts of the north. 



It is needless to say that I visited the cottage and the tomb 

 of Burns, auld kirk AUoway, the brig o' Doon, and many other 

 spots sacred to the memory of that poet of nature. On the 

 way through Dumfries we pass Gretna Green, suggestive of 

 runaway marriages, and arrive at Carlisle, one of the stations 

 ou Hadrian's wall, in Cumberland. 



In going south I paid my visit to Chester and Shrewsbury 

 and returned to London for my second visit to the Continent to 

 which allusion has been made in the preceding pages. I 

 intended, and I should be glad, to dwell upon the dairy system 

 of Cheshire which I had the good fortune to see something of, 

 but it does not differ materially from the report upon it which 

 I gave at length in the work on the dairy before alluded to, and 

 any thing I might say here would be mostly a repetition of that. 



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