AYRSHIRE, a county in the west of Scotland, considerable for its population and industry, is bound ed by Wigtonshire and the stewartry of Kirkcud bright on the south, by the counties of Dumfries and Lanark on the north-east and east, by Renfrewshire on the north, and by the Irish Sea and the Frith of Clyde for about 70 miles on the west. contains about 1039 square miles, or 664,960 English acres, of which nearly the half is under cultivation ; besides several small lakes, Loch Doon being the largest, ex tending to about six square miles more. The three bailiaries of Kyle, Cunningham, and Carrick, into which this county is divided, have been described in the article in the body of the work, to which the reader is referred. The rock of Ailsa, and the Mei kle and Little Cumbrae situate from 1 to 3 miles from the coast of Ayrshire, and nearly the Same dis tance from the Isle of Bute, are attached to this county. (See HEBRIDES.) The valued rent is L. 191,605, 7d. Scots, and the real rent in 1811, of the lands, was L. 336,471, 10s. and of the houses, L. 22,823 Sterling. The division of property is considered not unfavourable to the prosperity of the different classes of the population, though it appears that more than a third part of the whole county is held under settlements of entail. The advantages possessed by Ayrshire, besides its sea coast and several excellent harbours, may be traced to the coal and limestone found in great abundance in almost every part of it,—the one so necessary to its manufactures, and the other to its agriculture ; and the chief natural disadvantage under which it labours is the humidity of its climate, aggravated by the quality of the greater part of the soil, which is a tenacious clay.
Agriculture, according to the more approved courses of management, has nevertheless made con siderable progress of late in this county. The old rotation of three consecutive crops of cora, fol lowed by six years hay and pasture, has been very generally abandoned in the new leases ; and, on the better soils, an alternation of white and green crops, and an interchange of tillage and pasturage, as in the eastern counties of Scotland, begin to prevail. The dairy is, however, the chief object of attention to the Ayrshire husbandmen, and their valuable breed of cows, and rich, yet mild cheese, known by the name of Dunlop cheese, are in great repute in most parts of Britain. Their horses under the general name of
Clydesdale or Lanarkshire horses, are equal, if not superior, to those of any other race in the Island ; al most every small farmer, and the farms are too ge nerally small, either rearing one or more himself, or purchasing them when young, and res‘ llitig them to the eastern counties after a year or two of very mo derate labour. After all, it must be admitted that the agriculture of Ayrshire is much behind that of the counties on the east coast. No regular system of cleansing and manuring the soil, nor of fallowing and draining the wet lands, is to be seen throughout the greater part of the district. The size of the farms is commonly from 50 to 150 acres, affording little room for the employment of capital, or the di vision of labour ; and yet the rents are surprisingly high—of some favoured spots not less than eight pounds or guineas the acre.
Ayrshire, as a manufacturing district, seems to Masao. stand next in importance, among the Scottish coon- tam ties, to the contiguous shires of Lanark and Ren frew. Various branches of the woollen manufacture are carried on to a considerable extent in different parts of it, in Kilmarnock alone, to the value of L. 30,000 yearly. Carpets, and the coarser fabrics, give employment to a considerable proportion of the inhabitants of that thriving town ; and besides several public establishments there, and in other parts of the county, many private families in almost every parish take a share in the manufacture of blankets and coarse cloths; a part of which, after supplying their own wants, is carried to the fairs and markets of the county. Beith has long been noted for its thread manufacture. The cotton-works at Catrine are by far the most extensive of all its manufactories ; em ploying, in 1811, 900 hands, who are said to have spun into yarn 10,000 lbs. of cotton wool, and made 35,000 yards of cloth every week. At Muirkirk and Glenbuck, pig and bar iron are wrought to a great extent, and founderies have been erected there and in other places. Leather, saddlery, earthen-ware kelp, salt, are the only other kinds of manufacture worthy of notice in this county.