146 é THE GLENKENS IN THE OLDEN TIMES. 
of them from the rafters to dry and be smoked. For drink they 
put up whey into barrels in summer until itfermented. This they 
mixed with water, and drank after beirie kept nearly a year. A 
very little of this quenched their thirst. Tea was then known, 
but it cost thirty shillings a pound. 
The dress of the inhabitants was very rough and homely. 
The men wore zwaulked plaiden or kelt coats made of a mixture of 
black and white wool in its natural state. Their hose were made 
of white plaiden sewed together, and they wore rude single-soled 
shoes. Their Kilmarnock bonnets were either black or blue. 
None had hats except the lairds. In general neither men nor 
women wore shoes except in winter, and their children got none 
until they could go to church. Shirts they scarcely knew, and 
those used were of coarse woollen, and seldom changed. The 
women dressed untidily in coarse gowns, shaped in the most un- 
couth manner. Farmers’ wives wore toys or hoods of coarse linen 
when they went from home. When young girls went to church, 
fairs, or markets they wore linen mutches or caps. At home they 
went bareheaded, and had their hair snooded back on the crowns 
of their heads with a string used as a garter. 
Agricultural operations were very awkward and inefficient. 
Ploughs were heavy, and badly made. Both oxen and horses 
were generally yoked to one plough, perhaps four oxen and two 
horses. Where no oxen were used four horses were.yoked. <A 
woman or a boy was employed to walk backward and lead the 
animals. One man held the stilts of the plough, and another man, 
called the Gadsman, regulated the depth of the furrow by pressing 
down or raising up the beam of the plough. MHarrows were light 
and coarsely made. The teeth were of wood hardened by being 
tied up to the smoky rafters of the dwelling-house, but they 
required to be often replaced. There were no carts then made. 
Manure was taken to the fielas on cars, or in creels slung over a 
horse’s back. The women also carried out manure on their backs 
in creels of a smaller size. Corn and hay were conveyed home in 
trusses on horses’ backs, and peats in sacks or creels. Heather 
was often cut on the hills for firing. 
In spring working horses and oxen became so lean and weak 
from want of sufficient food that they sometimes fell down in the 
draught. The land was in crop for four successive years, and 
after that lay four years fallow. The yield was miserably poor, 
