1184 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV 



cart^, to Berwick, for the Ix)rnlon market. In one or two 

 instances the H6lcus lan.htus has been cultivated on reclaimed 

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

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

 turnips was introduced by Cralk about 1745. Draining has 

 be.;n extensively practised, irrigation in a few places, and some 

 embankments made on the Solway Firth, and the Xith and 

 Annan. There are few orchards. Some remains of <oppice 

 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 

 ago many young Scotch firs died from the attacks of the Terido 

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

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

 firs are described in the Keport. 

 5. Improvements. 



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

 done on the estate of Mount Annan, by General Dirom. The 

 extent of Mount Annan estate is '27 JO acres. Th^ general began 

 his improvements in 1793, and planted, before 1S19, 16<S acres. 

 Assisted in laying oi\t 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 Dublm. (38G3.) 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 began in 1800 

 (3850.) on the new road, and where the river Annan affords 

 ample falls for machinery. Farms arranged of different sizes, 

 and three eminent farmers settled with a view to improvement. 

 Cottage farms, one or two ; cottages ; improved stock on tlie 

 demesne farm ; improved farm buildings ; leases for fifteen 

 vears ; stone quarries opened, others drained and improved ; 

 brick clay found, and bricks made ; salmon fishery improved. 

 Irrigation, fiorin, spring whea', 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 ; the latter operation Deing not only v-ry laborious, 

 but one whicit seldom succeeds in cutting thefiirrows into pieces 

 small enough 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 



7840. KIRCUDBRIGHTSHIRE, 561,641 acres, and WIGTONSHIRE 288,900 acres (^rf. Gaz. abr. 

 1829), possessing great similarity of agricultural character, have been included in one report, as the 

 district of Galloway. The climate moist but rather warm ; in some parts of VVigtonshire, in genial 

 seasons, tigs ripen on the open garden walls. The soil and surface of Galloway is exceedingly various. 

 Almost the whole of Wigtonshire is very little elevated above the surface of the sea, but great part 

 of Kirc:udbrightshire is hilly and mountainous. The better soils are for the most part light, and of tliis 

 and hazfl loam there is a considerable portion in Wigtonshire, In some places in Kircudbrightshire it is 

 clayey or alluvial ; and there is a great deal of peat-moss, and bog, as well as improved, or grass-bearing 

 peat. Tiie rocks oi the county are argillaceous, granite, or whinstone.with some freestoua Some mineral 

 veins have been found ; and one of lead, near Gate House of Fleetj was worked at the expense of the 

 compiler of this work for some time, but without success. In an agricultural point of view, Galloway is 

 chiefly remarkable for its breed of cattle. Gladstone, a millwright, who has invented a reaping machine, 

 and proposed some improvements on the threshing machine, and other implements, is of this district. 

 {Smith's General View, 1810.) 



the whole of the exterior circle of two small ttroad wheeU,and 

 as they go round the knives cut the furrows across. 'I'he ax e 

 and frame of a roller are used for these wheels, so that the 

 weight may be increased by loading the box of the frame, if it 

 should be necessary to make the knives cut through the fur- 

 rows. 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 turneil over by the brake (break) harrow, 

 and being all cut into small pieces, are in the best state for 

 being reduced by repeated harrowing, or for being thrown to- 

 gether in heaps and burnt. 



fi. 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 requiring 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 dav ; contains a journal of 

 the weather, and of the progress of ditforent 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 tisef'ul 

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

 in my absence." 



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

 viz.. : from 175 to 571 inhabitants. Total expense of purchase 

 and improvements up to 1811, .30,000/. Clear annual rental 

 at that time, ^000/. 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 con- 

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

 siderable ; pajjer, stockings by fraines, muslin weavers. A sin^ll 

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

 spades daily are made. Cotton spinniiijj and weaving in a few 

 places. Carp t weaving, &c. " halt, trom the richest parts of 

 the sea sleecn, collected with horse drags in dry weather in 

 summer, and then placed so I's to he washed and" filtered, aixd 

 the bijue that runs out of it boiled." 



1. Property. 



More divided than in most of the counties of Scotland. 

 Largest estate, 30,000/. a year. Earl of Gallowa;.'s, in Wigton- 

 shire. Estates in general well managed : landlords in genera! 

 advance money at five, six, or seven and a half per cent, for 

 buildings, fences, drains, mineral manures, roads, &c. Dun- 

 bar Earl of Selkirk, a disciple of Craik's, one of the first who 

 set the example of improvement, whicl 

 by the same family to the present time, 



2. Occupation. 

 In the moors, where breeding cattle and sheep is the object, 



farms sometimes seven or eight miles square, some ten or 

 twelve. Arable farms 300 to 600 acres ; 200 acres perhaps the 

 average. Leases nineteen or twenty -one years, to which the 

 late Earl of Galloway superadded the tenant's lite. " From 

 this two good effects were supposed to result; Ist. That the 

 landlord was freed from the expenses of buildings and repaii-s. 

 2dly. That the tenant presuming (as we always do) on the 

 continuance of life, would be disposed to go on with his iin- 



Srovements to the last. There is certainly, however, mueh 

 berality in the idea." 



3. Enclosing. 



Galloway dykes (3060.) very generally in use ; some useful 

 remarks on the necessity of bonding tlem sufficiently, and 

 working the coping-stones to a flat under-surface. 



4. Arable Land. 



Till the middle of the eighteenth century, four and some- 

 times six horses yoked abreast in the old Scotch plough, and 

 tumbrils (carts with low wheels without spokes) and cars in 

 use ; now all the improved implements ; the husbandry of 

 East Lothian on the alluvial lands and loams, too h^avy for 

 turnips ; that of Berwickshire on the turnips soils ; cattle bred 

 on the mountains and moors ; carrots cultivated in some 

 places, and found to answer well ; fiorin tri- d on bogs ; some 

 irrigation ; embanking near Wigton and at Kjrkcv.dbright., 

 pnrt ninch draining : also narinir and buminL'. and various othei 



anit much draining ; also paring and burning; , and various other 

 means of improving bogs and flow-mosses tried, in conjunction 

 with draining. Corn in the late districts gaited. (3176.) 

 Barley is a good deal cultivated, and thin hot barley cakes, 

 from ilough, baked the same morning, and spread first with 

 butter, and then with honev, and folded or rolled up (like the 

 teff of the Abvssinians), form a part of the breakfast bread of 

 all who can afford it in Wigtonshire. 



5. Orchards. 



Itare. " Some proprietors furnish their tenants with fruit- 

 trees for their gardens, when they are willing to be at the 

 trouble of cultivating them. But, from the scarcity of fruit in 

 the country, and the idea that the plundering of an orchard is 

 a very venial trespass, such as do cultivate them, frequently do 

 not gather the fruits. In this we believe there is nothing 

 peculiar to Galloway. There are a few market gardens and 

 several nurseries." 



6. Woods and Plantations. 



Of a very limited extent, but rapidly increasing. John Earl 

 of Stair planted extensively at Mount Kennedy, in the be- 

 ginning of the eighteenth century ; and Douglas Karl of Sel- 

 kirk soon afterwards. The Earl of Galloway, the present E:irl 

 of Selkirk, Murray of Broughton, and various others, are great 

 planters. 



7. Live Stock. 



The Galloway bre^l of cattle is well known. The breeders per- 

 haps, in general, understand the management of cattle as well 

 as, or better than, most others in the kingdom. They all know 

 how to disting'.sish a good bull or a good cow from a bad one : 

 and fail not "to select from their own stock such as are best 

 adapted for the improvement of the breetl ; and from this ge- 

 neral attention, it no doubt arises, that the cattle in Galloway 

 are pretty uniformly good. But among them have arisen no 

 enthusiasts in the prmession ; none who have studied it scien- 

 tifically, or dedicateil their talents almost exclusively to this 

 one object. No fair test has yet been given, of what might be 

 done by aproper selection of the ckoicest in^iridnals of both sexes 

 for breeders, and uniting them in such a manner, as seemed 

 best calculated to diminish their faults and heighten their 

 properties, by crossing the progeny of these from time to time ; 

 and still carefully pursuing proper combinations of the most 

 approved males with the finest females, till the improvement 

 was carried to the greatest perfection of which the breed is 

 susceptible. No Bakewells, no Culleys, no CoUings have yet 

 appeared in Galloway ; who, with a skill, the result of long 

 study and experience, have united sufficient capital, and by 

 the success of their experiments have made greit fortunes, and 



transmitted their names to the most distant p.irts of the king. 

 dom. Few of the Galloway cattle fcompara.ively) are fed for 

 home consumption. Dairying with Ayrshire cows has lately 

 been introduced, and very good Dunlop cheese inade. 



The sheep for the low districts are of various breeds, those of 

 the highlands the same as in the mountain districts of the 

 counties already describtd. The South Down is found to an- 

 swer well in Wigtonshire, and also the Leicester. 



Horses. Gallov/ay formerly possessed a l.reed of horses pe- 

 culiar to itself, and' In high estimation for the saddle ; being, 

 though small, exceedingly hardy and active. Accustomed to 

 a rugged and mountainoui countiy,and never employed in the 

 draught, these were sure-footed, and travelled with spirit in 

 very bad roads. They were of a larger size than the ponies of 

 Wales, or the shelties of the north, being from twelve to four- 

 teen hands high. It is reported that this breed originated 

 from Spanish horses, which escaped from a vessel of the Ar- 

 mada, that had been wrecked on the shores of Galloway : but 

 it appears probable from some passages in Shakspeare, that the 

 Galloway horses were in repute at an earlier period. It is 

 much to be regretted that this ancient breed is now almost 

 lost. This has been occasioned chiefly by the desire of fdrmeri 

 to breed horses of greater weight, and better adapted for the 



