IV.-INDUSTRY
The great business is agriculture. Of the few weavers, many in harvest are thus employed, and most of their children have chosen it instead of the loom
Males employed in agriculture, | 90 | Males employed in manufacture, | 21 | |
Male servants above 20 years, | 21 | In retail trade, . . | 21 | |
Female do. . | 32 | Professional men, . | 4 | |
Male servants under 20, | 16 | Others not included, . | 12 | |
Arable ground, | 3100; | |||
Wood, | 240; | |||
Roads, water, &c., | 462; | |||
Total imp. acres, | 3800 |
Rent.- Average rent of arable land per acre L.2. Cow's grass, from L.4 to L.5. There is some land, in the low grounds, rented at L.4 per acre
Raw Produce.-
L. | ||||
Oats | 584 | acres, yielding | 3504 bolls, at 16s. per boll | 2083 |
Wheat | 183 | 1464 at L.1, 8s. | 2049 | |
Barley | 43 | 315 at L. 1, 2s | 346 | |
Potatoes | 170 | 5950 at 11s. | 3272 | |
Beans | 21 | 126 at 16s. | 100 | |
Pasture | 1100 | at L 1, 10s. per acre, | 1650 | |
Hay | 335 | yielding | 46150 stones, at 70s. per 100 | 1615 |
Turnip | 42 | 1260 tons, at L.1 per ton, | 1260 | |
Fallow | 20 | acres | ||
L.12377 13 0 |
Average annual output for three years, lime and coal: | |
Lime, 4400 chalders, at 12s. per chalder, | 2640 0 0 |
Coal, 7760 cart loads, five loads each, at 7d. per load, | 1131 13 4 |
L.16149 6 4 | |
Assuming for labour, &c. two thirds, | 10766 4 2 |
L. 5383 2 2 |
The farms are small, enclosed, in the lower grounds, by hedges, and in the upper, by stone dikes. The rotation in cropping gene rally is,
1 One year's oats from lea;
2. Potatoes drilled with dung;
3. Wheat;
4. Clover and ryegrass in hay.
Afterwards, pasture for two years. Draining is a good deal practised, especially where the proprietor occupies the land. In this, a few spirited landlords assist their tenants; and the drains are generally deep narrow casts filled with stones, and running into a main drain substantially built. Still much remains to be done in this way.
Leases.-Leases are generally for nineteen years, and are
considered favourable for the farmer. The common Scotch iron plough
is used; but frequent cropping, and fine, not deep, furrows, render
it highly probable, that the old custom of having three or four'
horses yoked in the plough, instead of two, will be adopted, especially
in the upper and tilly parts of the parish, as the crops are by
no means so heavy as in former years. In the lower grounds, less
manure and labour are necessary. Great crops are there always
certain, and fallow has been known to produce twenty bolls of
wheat per acre. Before the embankment of the Kelvin, all this
was greatly counterbalanced by inundations, the flood-mark in
the Balmore Haughs being 245 acres; but this is now greatly remedied
by a substantial embankment and a tunnel on the mouth of a small
rivulet running into the Kelvin from the heights, and, like the
Kelvin, during very heavy and constant rains, or a rapid thaw,
descending with great impetuosity, and occasioning great damage
to the banks, or often breaking them. Ploughing begins early in
February, and a Ploughing Society, instituted some years ago,
has produced some good effects from competition. Upon the whole,
however, the condition of farmers and their farms is worse than
it was fifteen years ago; since which time farming has gradually
deteriorated.