Agriculture.-From the great variety or soil and climate, the agriculture of this parish cannot be comprehended under one general description. The moorlands are most profitably employed in grazing. The highest and bleakest parts are allotted to sheep of which nearly 4000 are kept. Upwards of 1000 black-cattle are annually fed, either along with the sheep, or in lower region where the grass has supplanted the heath. Along the banks the Carron, and as you descend to the dryfield, much attention is paid by the farmers to the dairy. Several hundred cows are kept, and excellent butter and cheese are brought to market. Each farmer aims to raise as much grain as may serve his own family, though, in unfavourable seasons, he is often disappointed. Traces of the plough, as has often been observed elsewhere, are to be met with in our moorlands, where, for many years, perhaps, no grain has been raised.

On the sloping grounds, particularly of Sauchie and Touch, number of grass parks are annually let. Some of Sauchie parks have been let as high as L. 6 per acre, though the rent, of course, varies from year to year, and also according to the quality of the grass.

In the Dryfield there is much excellent land well cultivated, interspersed, however, with barren ridges, and tracts of cold, thin, damp soil. The improved culture of much of this part of the parish is but of recent date. In the memory of persons not far advanced in life, a large district, stretching to the Torwood, was covered with furze and heath: It is now enclosed and cultivated. The plantations, whether in clumps or belts, add greatly to the beauty of the country, afford shelter, and meliorate the climate. But the great means of improvement have been,- clearing the land of stones, and the introduction of the system of thorough draining, and subsoil ploughing. Both of these have been well described, as well as practised, by Mr Smith of Deanston, the inventor.

To illustrate the benefits resulting from this improved mode of culture, a few facts may be stated from a farm in the immediate vicinity of St Ninians. This farm consists of 100 Scotch acres, whereof 38 are allotted to grain crops; and though it was previously cultivated according to the most improved system then in existence, even in the most favourable seasons, it produced only from 24 to 26 stacks. Since 1836, the whole farm, with the exception of 12 acres, has been thoroughly drained, and the number of the stacks in the barn-yard last year, 1840, was 42. The change, however, is still greater, when thorough draining has been introduced on land accounted nearly irreclaimable. A field which, previous to 1836, never yielded more than from 10s. to 15s. per acre, was, in winter 1835-36, thoroughly drained, and immediately after was placed under green crop. The produce of one acre of potatoes was measured. It amounted to 93 bolls, which, at 5s. the boll, gives L. 23, 5s.: deduct L. 13 for seed, working, and manure, and there remains L. 10, 5s. for the farmer. In 1837, the same field was sown with. barley, and produced 10 bolls per acre. After deducting expenses, the farmer had for his share L. 10,, 19s 8d. In the third year it was in hay, of which it produced 2+ tons per acre, besides the aftermath. The value of the hay alone, at the average price of the season, was L. 11, 5s. per acre. It may be added, that this farm has nothing peculiarly favourable either in its soil, climate, or exposure.

In the carses, the system of farming is different from that followed in the dryfield. The rotation of crops in the former is, 1. fallow; 2. wheat; 3 beans; 4. barley; 5. grass; 6. oats. In the latter, 1. oats; 2. turnips, potatoes or fallow; 3 wheat or barley; 4. clover; 5. and 6. pasture. There are few stones, and no springs of water in the carses, and very little wood. One great object is to carry off all stagnant water, and keep the land dry. To accomplish this, not only large and clear ditches are necessary, but wedge or ridge draining is very extensively practised, and has been found most beneficial.

The rent of a large portion of the dryfield is not above L. 1, 10s.; and an intelligent farmer says, the whole will not average above L.2 per acre. Grain rents have been partially introduced into the carses, and the worst lands are rated at 2, and the best at 3 bolls of wheat per acre. The carse lands to the east of Stirling are supposed to be at least 10s. per acre more valuable than those to the west.

The following is the average quantity of seed sown in the carses to the east of Stirling: wheat, 3 bushels; barley, 4 do.; beans, 6 do.; oats, 6 do. per acre.

The average returns per acre, wheat, 10 bolls; barley, 7 do. oats, 8 do.; pease and beans, 10 do.

Lime is extensively used. Thirty single cart loads of dung, or 7 chalders of slacked lime per acre are, in the month of July, laid on the fallow ground preparing for wheat. Many carse farms are about 80 acres; but, as it is believed 100 acres could be wrought by the same strength, it would evidently be more beneficial to the farmer to have them of this extent.

Besides horses for working the farm, each farmer has a few cows; but there is very little live-stock in the carses, as the lands are too valuable for pasture. Their object is merely to keep up the supply of horses and cows for themselves.

Some excellent farm-houses and offices have lately been built, but two-thirds, it is believed, remain in their former homely state, and that, too, where rents to a high amount are paid.

A ploughman's wages, with bed and board, L.16; a servant woman, do. do., from L. 6 to L. 7. Many of the men sleep in stable lofts and bothies, a practice at once destructive of the habits of domestic life, anal deeply injurious to their moral character.

Rent-The valued rent is L.20,860. The real rent is considerably above L.40,000.

The duration of leases is nineteen years.

William Murray, Esq. of Touchadam and Polinaise, Vice-Lieutenant of the county, and principal heritor of this parish, first introduced that system of draining, which was known by the appellation of " wedge-draining," but which has since been more appropriately designated "thorough draining." The introduction of this leading improvement in agriculture may well lay a claim to be styled an era in the rural annals of Scotland, being so admirably adapted to its humid climate. The entire process consists of two distinct objects, viz. thorough-draining and subsoil ploughing.

1.Thorough -draining - This consists in a series of parallel drains, runing all in one elevation, and terminating in a common drain, situ- in the lowest part, or where the formation of the surface requires it parts, of the field. This drain is called the main, and is always deeper and wider than the parallel drains. It is, moreover, at right angles to the others. It is usually three feet deep, a foot to six inches in width at the bottom, and four feet wide at the top. These dimensions ate necessary when the field is large, and even when small, if the subsoil be particularly tenacious, and retentive of moisture. The best mode or constructing this drain, is to build it with stone and lime in the form of the letter U, and then covering it with flags, care being had that the flags do not come nearer to the surface afterwards to be placed upon it, than twenty inches, in order that the subsoil plough may meet with no obstruction. The soil is then thrown over it, and it is then brought to the level of the arable surface, and so nothing is lost. Cheaper methods have frequently been followed with success, and these will easily suggest themselves to the practical farmer, especially that one of using a larger sized drain the, manufactured for the purpose, and put in as is usually done in carse fields. The parallel drains are cut to the depth or two feet when tiles are to be used, and to thirty inches when stones can be had. Tiles are used almost always in the carse, because stones cannot so easily be procured, but in the dryfield the other mode is followed, as stones can be procured in sufficient abundance. The tiles are made in the form of, and in the same proportion as the letter U inverted, but to give the drain a greater degree of durability, as well as to prevent vermin from penetrating the soil, and thereby choking the drain, a flat tile is also used, upon which the other is placed. The soil is then cast into the drain, and the work is finished, and the expensive but most efficient improvement is hid from observation, working, however, like many of the operations of Divine Providence, in an unseen but most efficient manner, in the production of extensive benefit to the community. In the dryfield the process is somewhat different, as stones which are gathered on the field are used instead of the tiles. The drain, as mentioned above, being cut to the depth of thirty inches, the stones are broken so small as to pass through a ring of two inches and a half in diameter, and am then thrown into the drain to about the height of eight inches. Upon them is then placed a layer of old straw, hay, roots of quickens, potato shaws, or such other suitable materials as can most easily be procured, and upon this an inch or two or the most tenacious soil dug out of the drain, which is all well trodden down and compacted, so as to present an impenetrable barrier to the incumbent productive soil, which is now thrown in, and the process is completed. Notwithstanding the elaborate and expensive nature of these improvements, there is not a doubt but that, even as a mercantile speculation, they do abundantly repay the landlord, and even the farmer, if he has a long lease; and without that no farmer either would or should undertake them; but the result will exhibit the fact better than any general statements.

2. Subsoil Ploughing.-The field being all thoroughly drained, as already described, the farmer, especially in the dryfield, is not yet satisfied that he has done his utmost to the production of a good crop. He therefore avails himself of the invention of James Smith, Esq. of Deanston, and sets to subsoil ploughing his fields. This is done by means of a large plough, in the shape of an old Scotch plough, without a sock, and generally drawn by four horses. The method is the following: An ordinary two horse plough always goes before, taking the usual depth of furrow, which is followed by the subsoil plough cutting to the depth of about ten inches deeper, and removing stones, at least all that do not amount to more than from three to four hundred weight, besides stirring effectually the subsoil, so that it serves more easily as a percolator, in permitting the surface water to find its way into the drains. When the plough encounters a stone larger than the horses are able to turn out, which is often the case, a lad following the plough for the purpose, marks it with a tally. Crowbars are then brought to bear upon it, and it is turned out, and broken to assist in draining the same or another field. The quantity of work done in a day by six horse's and three men does not exceed, in general, half an acre; but it completes the utility of the draining system, and brings the productive powers of the soil into active operation. Another advantage anticipated and realized by the farmer is, that his manure, even in the wettest seasons, does not wholly lose its influence; whereas in fine or moderate, it produces its legitimate effects, and a good crop is always the consequence.

Quarries and Mines.- There are three freestone quarries, Catscraig, Blackcraig, and Craigbeg, in which 54 quarrymen and 15 labourers are employed. The average wages of the quarrymen are 15s. per week₁-the labourers, 11s. In the mines the miners have 15s. or 16s.; the labourers, 10s. 6d.

There is abundance of limestone in the parish, but at present it is wrought only in two places,- Craigend and Murray's Hall. The stone is found under the huge masses of trap or basaltic rock already described, and is wrought by miners. The works are separated from each other by a deep and narrow gorge, and the superincumbent mass appears as if hurled upon a rock of an entirely different description. The entrance to the mines is near the bottom of the precipice; and the stones, brought out in carts are prepared and burned in kilns close at hand. The lime rock is about 5 feet thick; the roof and bottom are of stone, each from nine inches to a foot thick. The dip is to the north-east, at the rate of one foot in six or seven. Sales commence about the 1st of April. and terminate at Martinmas. Including both places, there are usually 24 miners and 10 labourers employed. The wages of the miners are from , 15s. to 16s. per week; the labourers have 10s. 6d. The miners, perhaps from their exposure to damp, are rather liable to rheumatism,; but, in general they are healthy, though it is seldom that either they or colliers attain to a very great age.

Our coal mines are by far the most valuable in this parish, and these have been long and extensively wrought. Auchenbowie and Plean are wrought by the proprietors. Bannockburn and Greenyards ,are held in lease by the same company. The people employed at these, works are nearly 400. Of these there are usually 180 colliers, at 10s. per week, and in general they work only ten days in the fortnight There are from 70 to 80 labourers, at from 10s. to 12s. per week, excepting those who are placed in situations of trust and confidence, and to whom higher wages are allotted. There are upwards of 80 boys and girls, whose wages, according to their age and capacity, vary from 9d. to 2s. per day. The women are rather above 60 in number, and their wages from 1s. to 1s. 6d. per day. The average wage stated above is what a good collier can make, as they are paid at a certain rate, according to the quantity of coals they produce. Nothing is charged for their coals, only they must hew them themselves. Houses and gardens are in general provided for them, for which a very moderate rent is demanded.

The quantity of coal produced at all the different works is little, if anything, short of sixty thousand tons.

Fisheries -Trout and perch are found in Loch Coulter, and in the different streams of the parish; but the only fisheries deserving notice are on the Forth. These in general are either let to people in Stirling, or so connected with that belonging to the town of Stirling, that the account of them falls under the statistics of that parish.

Manufactures.-The manufacture of carpets and tartans has for many years been carried on to a great extent in this parish. The largest establishments are at Bannockburn ; but in other parts of the parish, particularly at Cambusbaron, active and enterprizing manufacturers are to be found. The weavers mostly reside in villages, though a few of them are still to be met with in the country. Including all the different branches,-spinning, dyeing, weaving, &C there are upwards of 1500 persons employed in this manufacture. When the trade is in a prosperous state, the number of men may be stated at rather more than 830, whose weekly wages are from 10s. to 12s.; women nearly 500, and their weekly wages are from 6s. to 7s.; boys and girls upwards of 170, from 3s. to 4s. per week. The annual average value of goods manufactured may be estimated at L. 180,000.

Tan-Works.-There are three tan-works in the parish, two in St Ninians and one in Bannockburn. In these, 48 workmen are employed, of whom a few are apprentices. Twenty-three are tanners, and one skinner, whose wages average 12s. weekly; and 24 curriers, at 14s. weekly. They are, in general, more healthy than any other class of tradesmen. The value of the goods tanned may be stated at L. 16,000, and the goods that are curried at L.12,000, of which above one-third are foreign hides, and skins imported in the hair; and the other two-thirds are the produce of the country around.

Nailers.-There are 200 nailers. They make from 1000 to 1200 nails in the day. Their working hours are long, and their wages small: 8s. or 9s. per week.

Brick and Tile-Work.- The only brick and tile-work in this parish is at Throsk, at which 26 men are employed: wages, 10s. and 11s. per week.

Distilleries.-Not many years ago there were six distilleries in this parish. At present we have only one, at Chartreshall. From the 11th of October 1839, to 11th October 1840, they consumed 23,490 bushels of barley. Formerly, there were a number of brewers in St Ninians, now we have only one, nor does he carry on business to a great extent.

Malt is made at St Ninians, Bannockburn and Sauchenford. The yearly average quantity is 28,980 bushels.