396 AYRSHIRE: EARLY POTATOES 



Glasgow, a considerable proportion coming off the 

 Transatlantic cattle-boats. But, as in London, town 

 manure is becoming more difficult to obtain, dearer 

 and of inferior quality, and the Ayrshire potato- 

 growers will have before long to face the question 

 of a substitute. Seaweed is also largely employed, 

 most easily, of course, on the farms south of Turn- 

 berry, where no intervening strip of links separates 

 the farming land from the sea. 



By almost universal custom the crops are sold 

 standing by auction ; the merchant lifts them at 

 his convenience, being under obligation to clear the 

 land by a certain date, and the farmer has no further 

 responsibility except to cart the full barrels to the 

 station. Long before the crop is ready the merchants 

 pervade the district, taking stock of each field and 

 watching the growth with critical eyes in order to 

 estimate the price they can afford to give ; and as 

 these prices had ranged up to 45 an acre during 

 that season, some knowledge both of the land and 

 the men working it is necessary to avoid losses. 



Once the land is clear the farmer resumes possession 

 and sets about a catch crop ; most generally rape is 

 sown to be eaten off by sheep brought down from 

 the hills in October and onwards. Italian rye grass 

 is another favourite catch crop ; it stands feeding 

 more than once, and can be left down until the turn 

 of the year and still be ploughed up in time for the 

 succeeding potato crop. We saw one field of a new 

 kind of rye grass called locally " Western Wolds " 

 grass, sown after potatoes and yet cut in the second 

 week in October. It was to be threshed for seed, 

 and if the weather held up -for a few days longer 

 it promised not only hay, but a passable yield of 

 mature if somewhat green and light seed. Another 



