Report on some features of Scottish Agriculture. 175 
stirks get IVom 10 to 15 lbs. per day of pulped turnips, with either 
3 lbs, of linseed-cake, or 6 lbs. of meal, or 4 to 5 lbs. of cotton- 
cake, and chopped straw. By this treatment they are got into 
good condition for grazing the following summer, in the park 
already mentioned, until the first week in August, when they are 
put up in strawyards to be fed for the London market. Their 
food at the finish includes, besides turnips and from G to 7 lbs. 
of oilcake, either cut straw or wheat-chaff and bean-meal. 
The stirks are always wintered at Dirleton, where, by the 
assistance of cake, they convert the straw into a fair manure with 
but few turnips, nearly the whole of this crop being eaten on the 
ground by sheep. Besides the purchase of upwards of lOOOZ. 
worth of artificial manures annually, for many years the bill for 
cakes and feeding stuffs has run from 1200/. to 1500?. 
DOWHILL, NEAR GiRVAN, AYRSHIRE. 
This farm occupies a situation on the west coast of Scotland 
almost exactly parallel to that held by East Barns on the Lothian 
side. The soil, though very much poorer than that near Dunbar, 
is distributed in nearly the same manner ; but the rainfall is at 
least double that of the east coast. 
Dowhill is held under the Marquis of Ailsa by Mr. Bryce 
Wright, who is now commencing his second lease. His name 
is well-known in the south-west of Scotland as that of a race of 
first-rate farmers ; and at least one of his brothers has carried 
the family reputation with him across the border to Beal, in 
Northumberland, where he now farms over 1000 acres by steam- 
cultivation, as already described in this Journal by Mr, J. 
Algernon Clarke.* 
Of the 500 imperial acres comprised in Mr. Bryce Wright's 
occupation, about 30 acres are very light sandy land, one field of 
which is continually under potatoes, followed the same year by 
a fodder or root-crop ; and the remainder is worked on a system 
to be presently described. The rest of the farm is nearly equally 
divided between light and heavy land ; the latter occupying the 
lower-lying portions near the sea, and the former the higher 
ground farther inland. 
The heavy land is farmed on a six-course shift, viz., oats, 
turnips, wheat, beans, wheat, and seeds ; and the light land on 
the following five-course rotation : — oats, turnips, wheat, and 
seeds for two years. 
The following description of the tillage-operations will pro- 
bably be interesting on account of the wetness of the climate, 
* 'Journal of the Royal Agricultural SocietJ',' 2nd Series, -vol. iii. p. 324. 
