AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND — 1791-1796. 6l 



crossing with other bulls had hitherto failed. A gentleman 

 in the parish, who had a large dairy, remarkable for rearing 

 the best cattle, in order to try an experiment, bought one 

 of Mr Bakewell's bulls (long-horns.) One-half of his cows 

 were served by this bull, and the other half by a Galloway 

 bull, bred on his own estate. He fed the product equally, 

 till they were sent to market at Norfolk, ' when those bred 

 from the Galloway bull brought considerably more money 

 than the others, besides being easier to feed.' We have to 

 note here that Mr Webster, after noticing the formation of 

 the Agricultural Society in Dumfries, which included in its 

 range the Stewartry and Wigton, says its influence was 

 most beneficial ; but he adds that the failure of the Ayr 

 Bank had greatly checked improvement in the county, so 

 that not one acre in ten of turnips was now (1794) culti- 

 vated. A spirit of improvement was springing up, and as 

 an instance, there is cited the erection, by Mr William 

 Ross, Stranraer, of a threshing machine, the first in the 

 district. Mr Clark of Arbigland had invented a kind of 

 drill-sowing machine, with which he ' sowed every kind of 

 grain, with a third part of the seed commonly allowed.' 

 The grain was in rows, six inches apart, and the cost of the 

 machine was £6 to £y. 



Of WiGTONSHIRE we take our information solely 

 from the Statistical Reports of the different parishes. In 

 Glasserton, the farmers had for their chief object the breed- 

 ing and feeding of black cattle. These were commonly of 

 the well-known Galloway race, not, occasionally, without 

 some admixture of the Irish and English breeds. The price 

 for well-grown and well-fed oxen, at the age of four years, 

 was from p^9 to ^11. Of sheep there were many varieties 

 in the district. ' The small white-faced race of the parish of 

 Mochrum ; the well-known small, black-faced breed of 

 Galloway ; the variety produced by the skilful manage- 

 ment of the celebrated Culley ; the Spanish and the Shet- 

 land races of sheep were all known and fed. A mixture of 

 the black-faced Galloway with the Culley breed had been 

 tried, but the common Galloway race was the most prevalent. 



