ditching, and turnip-hoeing. This last costs from 4s. to 5s. the

acre.

Produce. The average gross amount and value of raw produce raised in the parish, as nearly as can be ascertained, is as follows: Produce of grain of all kinds, whether cultivated for food of man, or the domestic animals, (deducting seed,) L. 7201 0 0

· potatoes, turnips, cabbages, beet, and other plants cultivated in the fields for food,

hay,

land in pasture, rating it at L. 2 per cow, or full-grown ox, grazed, or that may be grazed for the season; at 6s. per ewe, or full-grown sheep, pastured, or that may be pastured, for the year,

Total value of raw produce raised,

2898 0 0

2100 0 0

1288 0 0

L. 13,487 0 0

Of the crop of oats, the greater part is used for feeding horses and swine, and employed as meal for the farmers' families. The potatoe crop is almost all used for the same purposes. More than onehalf of the artificial hay is used in feeding the farmers' horses; and almost the whole of the natural hay is used in feeding the farm stock.

Manufactures. In this parish there are no manufactures; but a considerable number of weavers who work in their own houses, some of them country work; but more of them are employed in weaving cotton for the manufacturers of Carlisle and other places, the prices allowed for which vary exceedingly, and, when very low, are attended with great want and misery to the poor weavers.

V.-PAROCHIAL ECONOMY.

Means of Communication.—Dumfries is the post town of the district; and both a mail-coach, and another coach between it and England, pass twice daily through the parish; and a foot post also passes twice every day between Dumfries and Lochmaben, by another turnpike road through this parish. The length of turnpike roads in the parish is about seven miles and a-half; and they are kept in excellent order, as are also the parish roads, which are about twelve miles long, and are kept up by an assessment of L. 1 upon the 100 merks of valued rent, amounting to about L. 36 a-year. At present the assessment is reduced to 15s. per 100 merks, producing only about L. 27 a-year. The roads are now in so good a state that it is thought the annual expenditure of this small sum will keep them in proper repair. The sys

tem of making and repairing the roads with broken stones, as introduced by Mr Macadam, prevails universally here.

Ecclesiastical State.—The parish church is a substantial commodious building, erected in 1782; it affords accommodation for 500 persons, and the sittings are all free. It is conveniently situated near the centre of the parish. The manse has been built at three different periods. The oldest part of it was built about 1730; an addition was made about 1791; and another addition in 1809. It is now a large and tolerably convenient house. The stipend is fifteen chalders, half barley, half meal, payable at the rate of the county fiars; and L. 8, 6s. 8d. is given for communion elements. Converted to

money at the average of the last seven years, the stipend amounts to L.248, 1s. Id. The glebe contains eleven acres of good land, including the garden ground, steads of the manse and offices, and court-yard.

There are no chapels or dissenting meeting-houses of any kind here, though there are in the parish about twenty-eight families of Dissenters, and six poor Irish Roman Catholics. The church is upon the whole well frequented, and is attended by about 224 families. The average number of communicants is about 335.

Education. There are two schools in the parish. One of these is near the church, where English reading, writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, geography, Latin, and Greek, are very well taught by an able, diligent, and successful instructor of youth. His yearly salary is L.31, 6s. 6d. and the interest of L. 160 of mortified money. The wages paid by the scholars are extremely moderate,—1s. 6d. per quarter for reading, writing, and the four common rules of arithmetic; 3s. per quarter for writing and the higher branches of arithmetic; 5s. per quarter for book-keeping, Latin and Greek. The fees for geography, mathematics, and navigation are generally settled by agreement between the master and scholars. The yearly amount of fees actually received by him may be L.30. There is a good school-house and schoolmaster's house, and small garden. The number of scholars attending the school is in winter about 120, and in summer about 72. The other school is about two miles to the south of this, at the village of Collin. In it are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and book-keeping. The wages paid by the scholars for these branches are the same as in the other school. The yearly salary is L. 20, and the amount of fees received may be L. 20 per annum. There is a good school and schoolmaster's house, and about three-fourths of an acre of land, chiefly reclaimed from moss, which is now a considerable advantage to the

master. This school is also well attended. The people of this parish are thus amply provided with opportunities of education, and scarcely any of them arrive at ten years of age without being able to read and write.

Savings Banks, &c.-There are no circulating libraries, nor friendly societies, nor savings banks in this parish; but its contiguity to the town of Dumfries, where the inhabitants have an opportunity of joining in any or all of these, renders establishing them in this parish unnecessary. Several of the inhabitants do avail themselves of the opportunity of depositing small sums either in the Dumfries savings bank, or in that of Ruthwell, which is only eight miles distant, and for which it is natural to have a partiality, as being the parent institution established by the worthy and patriotic clergyman of that parish, Dr Henry Duncan.

Poor. The average number of poor persons receiving parochial aidis 21. Of these only four are males, and seventeen females, and almost all are old persons. Among these is divided by the kirk-session about L. 39 annually, arising from collections at the church, and L. 19, 5s., being the interest at 3 per cent. of a sum, amounting to L. 550, formed out of bequests made to the poor at different times. A general distribution is made four times in the year; but it is also found necessary to make many partial intermediate disbursements. L. 39 divided among twenty-one persons makes an average of L. 1, 17s. 1 d. to each person. But this gives no just idea of the actual state of the distribution, which varies very widely according to the circumstances of the paupers; some getting L. 5, 5s. while others not more than L. 1 yearly. The time is past when the poor were ashamed, or thought it degrading, to apply for parochial aid. Though there is not a single proprietor residing in this parish, the poor have hitherto been maintained by voluntary charity, without recourse being had to assessments of any kind. In 1791, the number of persons on the poors' roll was only five; at present, there are twentyThus the poor have quadrupled, while the number of inhabitants has doubled. At the former period there was distributed among the five paupers only L. 5, 9s. yearly. But at that time a considerable quantity of lint was grown in this district, the spinning of which gave profitable employment to many persons, particularly to old women, and enabled them, in a great measure, to maintain themselves; but the very low price of cotton cloth has now almost entirely supplanted the manufacture of home-made linen, and thus deprived old women of a useful and profitable branch of employ

one.

ment, for which they have no substitute; and they are thus made much more dependent upon the bounty of others.

Inns, &c.—There are no fewer than five ale, or rather whisky houses, in this parish, while there is really no use for one in a place so near Dumfries; and nothing is more pernicious to the industry and morals of the people.

Fuel. The parish is well supplied with fuel, consisting chiefly of peats, from Lochar Moss. But an abundant supply of coals also is brought by sea from the opposite English coast to Dumfries, and sold there for about 13s. or 14s. the ton.

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.

Lochar Moss.-The most obvious and important improvements which are wanted in this parish are, 1st, the draining and dressing the moss and meadows along Lochar, which, as before-mentioned, are very extensive. There is enough of declivity in this moss to admit of its being sufficiently drained for culture, if a straight wide course were cut for the water of Lochar, and a mill-dam removed, which is near the southern end of it in the parish of Carlaverock, and which at present stops up the water, and raises it to the height of six or seven feet. This great interruption to the drainage is all for the sake of a small trifling mill, which yields very little rent to the proprietor, and is hardly of any consequence to the tenants. If this mill-dam were removed, and a proper course cut for the main water all along the moss, with the necessary lateral drains,―improvements which could be done at a very moderate expense, it is not easy to calculate the vast quantity of ground now useless that might be formed into valuable meadows. The principal proprietors of this great moss are the Marquis of Queensberry, Sir Robert Grierson, Bart., Mr Paterson, the Earl of Mansfield, Mr Maxwell of Nithsdale, Mr Douglas of Craigs, Mr Heron, and Mr Johnston of Carnsalloch. Where so many proprietors are concerned, it is not easy to induce them to agree and co-operate heartily in any one plan. But the draining and improving of this vast moss, which lies in a low country, in a healthy warm climate, and on the edge of the sea, is evidently so much for the advantage of all concerned, is so plain and simple an operation, and might be completed at so small an expense, in comparison with the return it would make to the proprietors, that it is most wonderful, and much to be regretted, that it has been neglected so long, although it has been in contemplation for seventy or eighty years.

About

the beginning of that period, Charles Duke of Queensberry, who was then proprietor of a large portion of this moss, and whose memory, for his benevolence and public spirit, is still held in veneration by all the inhabitants of this part of the country, employed Smeaton, the most eminent civil engineer of that time, to survey the moss and make a plan and estimate of the expense of draining and improving it. The survey, plan, and estimate were made, and are published in Dr Singer's Agricultural Account of Dumfriesshire; but unfortunately the plan has never been followed out. The work could not be properly carried on unless the whole proprietors were cordially to co-operate, and it is not easy to say when this may happen. The estimated expense when Mr Smeaton made his survey was only L. 2952.*

2d, Much benefit would arise to the parish from the building of more substantial and commodious farm-steadings, and if more attention were paid to the rearing and managing thorn hedges for inclosing and subdividing the farms.

3d, It would also be of great advantage, particularly on the higher grounds of this parish, if plantations were to be reared in different places. These would not only beautify the country, but, by the shelter they would afford, render the climate warmer, and contribute very much to the comfort and improvement of the cattle, which thrive but very poorly at present on the high grounds, exposed to every cold blast.

4th, The greatest improvement which has lately taken place in agriculture here is the introduction and general adoption of the culture of turnips. It is not more than seven or eight years since this has become general; it is of the greatest advantage to the tenants, and enables them to pay rents which would otherwise have been ruinous to them. The soil is very much adapted to turnips, the crops are in general good, and the following crops of barley and grass are wonderfully improved by the feeding of sheep on the turnip fields.

December 1833.

The method which appears most likely for accomplishing an extensive work of this kind, in which so many proprietors are concerned, is for some skilful and enterprising individual, with sufficient capital, to obtain a long lease of the whole from the proprietors for a rent very low at first, (but more than it yields at present,) and gradually rising, with full right to cut the main course straight, and such other lateral drains as he may find necessary. To enable the proprietors to grant such a lease, an act of Parliament would be required, as great part of the property is under entail.