CLIMATE. 125 



under cultivation. Unlike the other districts, Car- 

 rick is as yet almost exclusively agricultural and 

 pastoral. 4 



The climate of Ayrshire is said to be the most 

 humid in Scotland. The winds blow from the west 

 and southwest for more than two thirds part of the 

 year, and the rains from these quarters are frequent, 

 often copious, and sometimes of long duration. 5 The 

 rain does not usually fall in heavy, casual plumps, 

 but comes down in more continuous succession of 

 steady, moderate showers, or thick, drizzling smirrs. 6 

 This is well-shown by a series of statistics of the 

 rain-fall in Kilmarnock, from March to October, dur- 

 ing the years 1864 and 1865. The average weekly 

 rain-fall was .63 inch, and in but five weeks of the 

 sixty was no rain-fall recorded. During the fifteen 

 years from 1850 to 1865, out of the 214 days from 

 March to October, on the average, 109 were recorded 

 as wet. 7 This constant moisture is favorable to the 

 grasses, and is an encouragement to dairy industries. 



The temperature is remarkably equable, the colds 

 of winter being mitigated by the passage of the prev- 

 alent winds over the adjacent seas, and the extreme 

 heats of summer, in like manner moderated through 

 the influence of the water. During the season of 

 growth, the mean maximum and minimum tempera- 

 ture of any week seldom varies more than 25, and 

 rarely does the mean maximum attain 65. The 



4 Archibald Sturrock, op. cit. p. 21. 



6 Alton's vSurvey of Ayrshire, p. 18. 



6 Sturrock, op. cit. p. 27. 



' Thomson's Pr. Essays High. Soc. 4th ser. 46, 347. 



