The wages of a farm-servant in 1811, was estimated at 181., 221., 281., and sometimes 301. a year, and a woman for farm-work will get from 81. to 121. a year, and a day labourer has 28. and 2s. 6d. per day.
The average price of beef may be estimated at 8d. per pound, mutton 9d. veal, poi It, grain, and vegetables, are in proportion still dearer. Salmon Is. 6d. per pound, and salt herrings sell high, as well as every kind of food, owing to its vicinity to large towns.
Copse woods form a very important article in this coun cover some thousand acres of soil, which would otherwise be altogether or nearly useless, and yield an income to the proprietors almost equal to what they derive from their best lands. Large tracts of land formerly barren are made to yield a large and useful pro duce. During the last thirty years large plantations have been formed.
Amongst the various and extensive manufactures esta blished in this county, the printing of cottons is the most important. It is can ied on by seven different companies; and besides the bleaching of printed goods, there are nine bleachfields for whitening cotton goods; three cotton spinning mills ; three paper mills; and at Dalnotter iron work, nails, edge tools, and all sorts of wrought iron goods are manufactured on an extensive scale. A large
glass manufactory is carried on in Dumbarton. Alkali is manuf .ctnred at Burnfoot of Dalmuir. At Millburn there is a distillery of pyrolignous acid. This liquor is employed in making colours for calico printers, and while this liquor is distilling, a quantity of tar and char coal is produced; and in the town of Dumbarton there are a few tan works.
The only branches of commerce which deserve to be noticed are the importation of grain, and the exporta tion of the produce of the salmon and herring fisheries. The former of these has long been the staple trade of the port of Dumbarton.
The total gross produce of the salmon fishings will probably be rather undervalued if stated at 10001. a year, and the gross value of the herrings annually caught, (al though there are no regular fishers.) amounts, on an average of years, to about 45001. See Macfarlane and White's digrieultural Report of Dumbartonshire, 1813. (A. .r.)