AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND — 179I-I796. 57 



fine wool, all white, faces and legs included. The 

 hills of Annandale and Nithsdale were occupied with the 

 common, hardy, Scotch sheep, with black faces and legs, 

 and long coarse wool. The black cattle were generally of 

 the Galloway breed, especially in the Nithsdale district. 

 In the other two districts a considerable proportion of the 

 cattle were still of the original breeds of those districts. 

 The cattle in these latter were ' not so good as the Gal- 

 loway breed. They were too long of the leg, too narrow 

 in the back, and too thin and short of the hair, and. in 

 consequence, neither so weighty nor so hardy as the Gal- 

 loway breed.' Dr Johnston obser\"es that ' the Galloway 

 breed hath been crossed with bulls brought from difterent 

 parts of England, but not improven thereby. The true 

 Galloway breed of cattle, in proportion to their size, is the 

 handsomest and best in Britain, and draws the best price 

 in ever)- market in the kingdom where they are exposed. 

 A great proportion of the Galloway cattle are Polled (with- 

 out horns), and those that are so, when young, sell above five 

 per cent, higher than those which have horns. The reasons 

 of this additional price are, that they are more hardy, less 

 hurtful by pushing while feeding loose in straw yards, and 

 that the English graziers are more certain that they are the 

 true Galloway breed, which they hold in high estimation.' 

 Dr Johnston further mentions that a considerable number 

 of milk cows, small size, and good milkers, are brought 

 from some of the districts of Ayrshire. As illustrative of 

 the extent of the cattle trade with England, the reporter 

 obser\'es that four principal drovers carried to England 

 from the counties of Dumfries, Wigton, and Kirkcudbright, 

 cattle worth ;^i 30,000 sterling, representing nearly 20,000 

 head. Of these, probably 4,000 went from Dumfriesshire. 

 The ploughs in general use in the count}- were, the English 

 plough, the old Scotch plough, and the Scotch plough with 

 the English mould-board, the first being used in soils free 

 of stones, the second in land full of stones, and the third on 

 ground composed of both. I\Ir Stewart of Hillside, Carlisle, 

 in a report on the Annandale district, of the same date as 

 Dr Johnston's, mentions that in 1776 a societj- for the 



