188 
Report on some features of Scottish At/riculture. 
space in iVont of an engine-house. The latter structure belongs 
to a distillery, to which the Dairy is most extensively indebted. 
By means of its engine, liquid manure from the cow-sheds is 
pumped into tanks erected on the highest eminences on the farm 
belonging to the Dairy Company, and the distillery refuse is a 
nutritious and milk-producing food, which is used in consider- 
able quantity. 
The following description, extracted from the late Mr. H, H. 
Dixon's ' Field and Fern,' will give an idea of what this dairy 
was a few years ago : — 
" Mr. Harvey's byres are distinguished by different names — 
' The Parlour,' ' The Thistle,' ' The Halloween,' ' The Waterloo,' 
' The Malakotf,' and so on. There were some 1700 cows and 
queys in all, and about 1000 of them in milk, and feeding on 
turnip, cut straw, and distilled grains. The bulls, which stand 
with them, are mostly shorthorns, and so are 300 of the milch cows ; 
the rest are Ayrshires, with the exception of a few polls and recently 
a sprinkling of Dutch. They stand in long ranks tail to tail, and 
the scourings fall into the gutters behind them, which are duly 
flushed down. Hence each beast has to be very accurately told 
off, on her arrival, into a byre, whose stallage exactly suits her 
length. In some of the byres there is only one line of cows, and 
the calves are in small partitions opposite them. 
" About fifty of the queys are kept each year, and go as year- 
lings and two-year-olds to parks down the Clyde, and the rest 
are dismissed as ' slink veal ' (to adopt the term of the trade) to 
the butcher soon after they are calved. Thirteen cows are 
allotted to each milker, seven of whom live on the spot, and the 
rest arrive at milking hours from Glasgow." 
Since the Cattle-plague, the Dairy has dwindled but not 
decayed. Not more than 150 cows are now housed in the home 
shippons ; but the Company contracts with the neighbouring 
farmers for the supply of a very large quantity of milk, which- 
raises the total amount of the saleable commodities up to the 
estimated produce of 800 cows. Ayrshire cows and shorthorn 
bulls are preferred at the home-steading. 
Cows are bought just previous to calving to replace those 
which have gone to the butcher; and in 1809, about fifty passed 
through the manager's hands in this way. Those of their own 
breeding are kept on for four, five, or six years ; and those that 
are bought are retained according to the age at which they come 
in. March, April, and May are the months most preferred for 
bulling, as they suit the winter trade ; but great care is taken to 
have a sufficient number of late calvers, as many of the earlier 
cows run dry suddenly towards the fall of the year. A cow 
should become dry at least five or six weeks before calving, and 
