1186 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



been found to succeed better than on plains, as subterraneous 

 water flows ihost quickly away. Most of them stand on soils 

 greatly cohesive, and on such the trees have been supposed to 

 be surer bearers than on open sandy soils : yet there are in- 

 stances of orchards, on friable and gravelly soils, uncommonly 

 productive. Plum trees are generally planted round the verge 

 of the orchard, and are profitable, not only for the fruit they 

 bear, but for sheltering the other trees. The depredations 

 committed on the orchards are become more frequent and 

 daring, as the manufactures of the county have increased, and 

 are a great discouragement to this species of cultivation, par- 

 ticularly that of small orchards, which cannot defray the ex- 

 pense of watching in the night." 



Besides the larger fruit, great quantities of gooseberries and 

 currants are cultivated, and, when well managed, are said to 

 pay very well. The gooseberry and currant trees are dug 

 around annually, kept on a single stem, and dunged every 

 second year. 



Copsetvoodi, or native timber trees, are not abundant ; the 

 oldest trees are on the Clyde, in and near Hamilton Park and 

 Bothwell Castle. Many new plantations are forming in every 

 part of the county. 



4. Live Stock. 



Cattle a mixed breed; the Ayrshire beginning to become ge- 

 neral. Oxen formerly employed in labour, and still used by a 

 few of the amateurs in spite of the better sense of their tenants 

 and bailiffs. Few sheep kept, excepting on the mountains, 

 where the black -faced sort prevails. 



The daught horiet of Clydesdale have long been in high esti- 

 mation. Dealers from different parts of England come to the 

 Glasgow and Rutherglen markets to purchase them, and prrfer 

 them to the Derbyshire blacks. Those of the upper 

 ward, where the greatest number are bred, are es- 

 teemed the best. The native breed began to be 

 improved by crosses from England ana Flanders 

 about 1760. 



The Lanarkshire breed of horse* vary in height from 

 12 to 18 hands; but fi-om 14 to 16 hands is consi- 

 dered the proper;size. " His general aspect (Jig. 1 127.) 

 is stately, handsome, and dignified. He is round, 

 fleshy, well proportioned, strong, and heavy, with- 

 out being coarse or clumsy. His countenance is sweet 

 and agreeable, yet lively and spirited ; and his motions 

 are steady and firm, but nimble and alert. His head 

 is indue proportion to his body, rather small than 

 large, no way clumsy, and not so full and prominent 

 below the eyes as some of the English breeds. His 

 nostrils are wide, his eyes full and animated, and his 

 ears erect. His neck is neither long nor slender, but 

 strong, thick, and fleshy, with a good curvature, and 

 the mane strong and bushy. He is broad in the 

 breast, thick in the shoulders, the blades nearly as 

 high as the chine, and not so much stretched back- 

 wards as those of roa^ horses. The arm tapers to the 

 knee. The leg rather short ; bone oval and strong, but 

 solid and clean. The hoof round, of a black colour, 

 tough and firm, with the heels wide, and no long 

 hair on the legs, except a tuft at the heel. The 

 body round and heavy ; the belly of a proportional 

 size, 'neither small nor large, and the flank full. 



The back straight and broad, but not too lonf;; the loin 

 broad and raised a little. Hucks visible, but not prom.nerit, 

 and but a short space between them and the ribs. The 

 sides, from the shoulders to the hip, nearly straight ; the 

 thighs thick, and meeting each other so close under thf; fun- 

 dament, as to leave only a small groove fur the tail to rest on. 

 The tail strong, stiff, heavy to lift, and well haired. A large 

 sheath (vaginalis considered to be one of the marks of a good 

 horse, and a small one the reverse." Aiton. They have been 

 much improved of late, and are still improving, especially in 

 size and weight. 



Bogs. " A kind of Jewish abhorrence of swine seems to 

 have taken place, about the rigid times of the Reformation, 

 in the western counties of Scotland. They were unclean 

 beasts ; it was sinful to eat their flesh, and neither creditable 

 nor profitable to keep them ; and thoiigh these prejudices are 

 now pretty much worn out, pork is not yet, in general, a fa- 

 vourite food, and, of course, the number of hogs kept and fed 

 are not considerable." 



5. Political Economy. 



The roads are in many places bad, but have lately been im- 

 proved ; though the materials begood and abundant, the we/ 

 climate is much against them. There are several canals, thi 

 river Clyde, navigable to Glasgow, and some railways. The 

 manufactures and commerce of Glasgow are of great extent 

 and well known. There is a corresponding agricultural 

 society therei and some minor societies. 



1127 



7843. DUNBARTONSHIRE. 147,300 acres of exceedingly irregular surface, in two parts, distant 

 ftom each other SIX miles ; possessing little agricultural interest. The arable lands are of very limited 

 extent, and lie chiefly on the banks of the Clyde and Leven : the greatest part of the county consisting of 

 lofty mountains incapable of cultivation. Coal, lime, freestone, and ironstone abound, and are exten- 

 sively worked. There is also ochre, schistus abounding in alum pyrites, which are made into copperas, 

 and a large quarry of blue slate. Lochlomond is weU known for its scenery. {Whyte and Macfarlane's 

 Seport, 1811.) 



1. Property. 



Two large estates ; one exceeds 300W. a year. One third of 

 the county under entail, which greatly retards its improve- 

 ment. 



2. Buildings. 



More than a common share of elegant villas and gentlemen's 

 houses. The most magnificent is Roseneath, the Duke of 

 Argyle, built by Bonomi, in 1 803 etteg. It is 1 84 feet long, and 

 lafln breadth, with two magnificent fronts, both ornamented 

 with columns of the Ionic order. On his Grace's farm, which 

 is cultivated in a very superior style, there is also a large set of 

 farm offices, surmounted with a high tower. Common farm- 

 houses and cottages formerly very wretched, beginning to im- 

 prove, but the progress slow. Dunbarton bridge 300 feet in 

 length, and twenty-five feet high in the centre. 



3. Occupation: 



Average extent of arable farms fifty acres ; sheep, or moun- 

 tain farms, average 600 acres. Farmers men of limited edu- 

 cation, without capital, and implicitly following ihe practices 

 of their fbrefathers- There exists among the labouring class in 

 this district an inveterate attachment to the possession of land. 

 When a yoiuig man is disposed to marry, he looks out for a 

 small farm, takes it at an extravagant rent, stocks it on credit, 

 and draws from it a scanty subsistence, while at the end of his 

 lease his effects are often unequal to pay the debt which has 

 accumulated during its currency. In fact the feudal state of 

 society has not entirely disappeared in this county. There were 

 lately, on many estates, and are still on some, farms let to three 

 or four ttnants, as conjunct lessees, to be cultivated by their 

 united, or rather discordant exertions. Lands always let on 

 legse, seldom tot a shorter period than nineteen years. 



4. Implements. 



Curved harrows of a semicircular form are used by the best 

 formers for dressing their potato ridges. The diameter is equal 

 to the distance between the drills or ridges, generally near three 

 feet ; and they are used, before the young shoot of the potato 

 springs, to dress the surface of the ridge, and destroy any weeds 

 which may have begun to appear. The highland hand-harrow 

 is still in use in some comers of the highland district. It is 

 about two feet long and fifteen inches broad, consisting of three 

 bulls, and as many cross bars, with twenty-seven teeth and two 

 handles bent, like a hoop, with which it is wrought. It is em- 

 ployed on bits of land which have been dug with the highland 

 spade, either on account of their being too steep to be tilled by 

 the labour of a horse, or from their consisting of a number of 

 small comers among rocks and large stones, to which a common 

 harrow could not find access. Wilkie's wheel plouah, with a 

 shifting muzzle ( fig. 1128.), is used to clear water-furrows on 

 wet lands, and also for the common purposes of ploushmg 

 strong clays when wet; the muzzle being set so as both horses 

 may walk in the furrow. 



5. Enclosing. 



Gentlemen who pay particular attention to their hedges 

 never allow them to be cut with shears. In place of that 

 implement a hedge-knife is used, writh a short and slightly 

 curved blade, thick in the middle, and tapering to a thin 

 and very sharp edge on each side. By cutting always upwards, 

 the twigs are cut clean over without being bruised or cankered, 

 and the hedge is kept, of what is universally allowed to be the 

 best shape, broad and bushy at the bottom, and contracting to 

 a sharp ridge at top. 



