340 THE 



and humid vapours of the Atlantic. It contains fertile t 

 and presents to the eye picturesque scenes : but throughout 

 it is only of a very moderate fertility, and exhibits a far dif- 

 ferent aspect from those rich and verdant plains of the Severn 

 and the Avon, of the Trent and the Cam. where the largest 

 cattle in Europe can be reared, and the richest productions 

 of the Dairy obtained. And further, the artificial improve- 

 ment of the country is but as of yesterday, when compared 

 with that of the fertile plains of England. Within the 

 memory almost of the living generation, the agriculture of 

 Ayrshire was in a state of utter rudeness. Its condition at 

 the middle of the last century, and long afterwards, is thus 

 described by eye-witnesses. There was hardly lonel 



Fullarton. in his Survey of Avrshire. a practicable road in the 

 country. The farm-houses were mere hovels, built with clay, 

 having a fire-place in the middle, with an open space for the 

 escape of the smoke, and they were placed in a dunghill. 

 The lands were overrun with rushes and weeds of all kinds. 

 There were no fallows, no green crops, no sown grasses, no 

 carts or waggons, no straw-yards. Hardly an esculent root 

 was raised, nor indeed any garden vegetables, beyond some 

 Scotch greens, which, with milk and oatmeal, formed the diet 

 of the people. There was little straw, and no hay beyond 

 the scanty portion collected from the bogs and The 



little dung produced was dragged to the ground on cars or 

 sledges, or on what were called tumbler- wheels, which turned 

 with the axle-tree, and supported the wretched vehicle scarcely 

 able to draw five hundredweight. The ground was scourged 

 with successive crops of oats after oats so lon as it would 

 pay the seed and labour, and afford a small surplus of oat- 

 meal for the subsistence of the family. It then remained in 

 a state of absolute sterility, and covered with thistles, until 

 rest again enabled it to produce a scanty crop of corn. The 

 rent was generally paid in kind, on the condition of what was 

 termed half labour. The stock and implements were fur- 

 nished mutually by the parties concerned, or on such terms 



