Agriculture.- Of the 17,000 acres given as the probable extent of the parish, not more than 7000 are at present under the plough; but additions are annually made to the arable district, and some thousand acres might still be brought into cultivation. In the present depressed state of the markets, it is advisable to expend capital in improving the ground already arable. The most fashionable and most profitable improvement, is what is called furrow, or frequent draining. While every proprietor has commenced operations on the clay retentive soil, which abounds in the parish, Mr Blackburn has taken the lead. His drains are only sixteen feet asunder, and filled with broken stones. The effects of his system are now visible on a farm of 200 acres, which, from being drenched with moisture in winter, and from being baked with the heat of summer, was of little value either in crop or pasture; but now, in consequence of draining and deep ploughing, it produces luxuriant crops of turnips and grain. In the latter years of his life, and since his death, in 1840, his son, Mr Peter Blackburn, has extended draining to every part of his estate. He erected, in 1837, a kiln for burning drain tiles, which yields about 500,000 annually.

Plantations and Pasture.- There is little natural wood in the parish. The extent under plantation, is about 1140 acres. The object of proprietors is to convert these plantations into copse, filling them entirely with oak, and cutting them, every twenty years:  yet, as oak bark has fallen to about L.8 per ton-less than half or the war prices, and as there is a growing demand for fir, especially larch, it is probable that the latter will be more extensively planted. The annual value of wood sold, is about L. 400. It may increase considerably beyond that sum, as a great part of the oak copse is not arrived at perfection.

The ground that is waste, or in permanent pasture, extends to 8860 acres, and admits of some improvement by draining marshes, and by sheltering exposed ground by artificial plantations-even though not partially brought into cultivation.

Rent and Produce.-Farms vary in extent from L. .560 a-year down to L. 85, besides some small possessions occupied by retired farmers and by tradesmen. Among all of them, there is diffused a spirit of improvement. Within the last thirty years, the produce has been doubled: still much remains to be done. The soil is far from that state of fertility, of which it may be made capable, as the best patches near the village are let at L. 1, 12s. per acre, while the average of the whole arable land is about 15s. The rent of the whole parish may be stated as follows:
 

Arable,	7000 acre,	at 15s.,	L.5250  0 0
Hill pasture,	8860	do. . .	L.1250 0 0
Plantation,	1140	do. . .	L. 400 0 0
	17,000		L.6,900 0 0

The following statement of the gross produce is perhaps near the truth
 
 

		1. Crops
	Imperial Acres	Produce per acre	Total produce	Total Value L.
Oats	1500	30 bushels at 2s. 6d	45,000 bushels	5625
barley	360	36 do.           3s. 6d.	12,960  do.	2268
wheat	60	40 do.           5s. 6d.	2,400  do.	615
potatoes	200	at L.6 per acre		1200
hay	600	at L.2 do		1200
turnips, beans tares, etc.	200	at L.5 do.		1000
					11,908
		2. Stock
Milk cows	500	at L.5		2500	-
Fat cattle	200	at L4. 10s.		900
Sheep(Highland)	3000	at 10s.		1500
Horses	40	reared annually at	L.25	1000
Sheep(English), swine and poultry		annual value		200
					6100
Total annual value					18,008

 
 

In explanation of this statement, it may be mentioned that the dairy produce of each cow, could not be rated at L 5, without including the value of calves reared (for none are fattened); that a half only of the horses annually reared is sold, the other half being required to keep up the stocks; and that a part of hay, and the whole turnips, beans, and tares, are employed in feeding cattle and horses, and ought not, therefore, to be placed to the credit of the farm, were it not compensated by the value of old sheep and old cows annually sold, for which 110 charge is made. The sheep are sold as great ewes in spring, or fattened in the end of the season. The old cows are sold with most advantage to, Glasgow dairy men, when they are near calving, and there is a regular demand for such,.as they give milk only one year, and as they are nearly ready for the butcher, as soon as the milk season is ended.

Manufactures -There was a cotton-mill in the parish, which was burnt down in 1806, and has not been rebuilt; and a printfield, which was abandoned about the same time, and is now become ruinous. There is now only one manufacturing establishment - the woollen factory of Mr John Jamieson, where 400 cwts. of wool are used annually, and where it passes through all the various processes, till it is converted into cloth.