180

LAND OCCUPIED BY FARMERS

Kirkcudbright), farms of 300 arable acres are rarely to be metwith; and in Pecbles-shire only a few amount to 200. Theaverage extent of arable farms is rather below 100 acres, andthat of sheep farms, in this district, exceeds 800 acres. But anumber of farms contain a mixture of arable and pasturelands : and many farmers rent a sheep farm in one district,and a corn farm in another.

• In the 3d, or Manufacturing District, the quantity of ara-ble land, though very different in many farms, seldom exceeds200, and more frequently falls below 100 acres. In Ayrshire,corn farms in general are from 50 to 250 acres. In Renfrew-shire they seldom exceed 100. A few in Lanarkshire amountto 200. In Dumbartonshire the average is only about 70arable acres. Yet sheep farms of great extent, valuable dairies,and the rearing of one of the best breed of horses in thekingdom, distinguish these Western Lowlands ; though themultitude of hills, rivers, and lakes, and other causes, limitthe size of the farms, and the moisture of the climate is un-favourable to the raising of corn.

In the 4th, or Central District, there is the greatest varietyin the size of farms. In Fifeshire , in the neighbourhood oftowns, there are many small pendicles of from 8 to 10 acres,while farms are of all sizes, from 80 to 500. In Stirlingshire,arable farms vary from 40 to 500 English acres; and the sizehas increased of late in that county, although in the rich cur-ses it rarely amounts to 100 acres. In Kinross-shire the arablefarms contain from 100 to 400 acres. In Clackmannanshire,from 50 to 200. In Perthshire, from 50 to 650. And, inForfarshire, from 40 to 600. The average of the whole is pro-bably 200 English acres of arable land; (though there areextensive sheep farms in the inland or mountainous parts ;) andthe central district, generally speaking, both in regard to theprogress of improved agriculture, and the size of its arablefarms, approaches nearer than any other district to the firstor the South-east Lowlands.

In the 5th district, or North-east Lowlands, (where the