514 General Results of a Gardening Tour: — 



clover and rye-grass; 3d, clover and rye-grass fed off, or 

 the first crop mown for hay ; 4th, pasture ; 5th, pasture ; 

 and, 6th, oats. Round Kilmarnock, a great quantity of 

 annual and perennial rye-grass seed is raised, and this crop 

 is reckoned on a par with one of oats, in point of exhausting 

 the soil. Iron ploughs have almost every where been sub- 

 stituted for wooden ones, and the saving is considered great, 

 on account of their extreme durability. They were intro- 

 duced about twenty-six years ago, and there is not a single 

 instance of one of them being worn out. Finlayson's harrow, 

 invented in the neighbourhood of Ayr, by a farmer of that 

 name, a most ingenious and excellent man, who, unfortu- 

 nately, did not live to see the effects, and reap the fruits, of 

 his invention, is also very generally used ; and we have been 

 informed by several farmers, and particularly by our esteemed 

 friend, Mr. Tenant of Shields, that, in consequence of em- 

 ploying this implement, they never plough their turnip, 

 potato, or other fallows more than twice ; viz., in preparing 

 the ground, to break up the stubble ; and, before sowing or 

 planting, to form the drills. In naked fallows, the plough is 

 only used at first breaking up, and in turning in the manure 

 before sowing. Stall-feeding is general, both for fatting 

 cattle and for milch cows ; but the latter are always turned 

 out to pasture a portion of every day. Under-draining with 

 tiles, in what is called the Essex mode (that is, putting drains 

 in every furrow, or in parallel lines from 12 to 20 ft. apart, 

 in order to carry off the water from soils having retentive 

 sub-strata), has been introduced, and most extensively em- 

 ployed, by the Duke of Portland, on his large estate, reaching 

 from the sea-shore, at his harbour of Troon, to and beyond 

 Kilmarnock. The same principle of draining has been prac- 

 tised by Mr. Buchanan at Catrine: but the drains there, 

 instead of being laid with tiles, are filled with small stones 

 within a foot of the surface ; in our opinion, a much more 

 effective and more durable mode. Mr. Buchanan has also 

 turf-drained moss, or peat bog. The covering turf, or sur- 

 face spit of the bog, is dried in the sun during one summer, 

 previously to using it, till it has become charred, and insolu- 

 ble in water ; and this turf being broader than the bottom of 

 the drain (Eney. qfAgr., 2d edit. fig. 651. p. 709.), is rammed 

 into it, so as to form an arch. These drains are cheap, 

 require no carting on the moss, are effectual for the end in 

 view, and are found to last for a long time. 



The Field and Roadside Hedges, in most places in the west 

 of Scotland, particularly in Ayrshire, are exceedingly well 

 managed, being trained so as to form a body of verdure from 



