The following Report relating to Renfrewshire was drawn up at the desire of the Board of Agriculture

CHAPTER IX.

GARDENS AND ORCHARDS.

ALTHOUGH in Clydesdale (the adjoining country) there are above 250 acres of land in orchards, the produce of which, in some years, amounts in value to upwards of £2000,[62] yet in Renfrewshire there are none, excepting upon a few steep banks of small extent at Port-Glasgow. The experiments which have been made there, shew, that the soil, climate; and exposure, are favourable for orchards.

The noblemen and gentlemen, and many of the wealthy merchants and manufacturers in Renfrewshire, have excellent gardens, of considerable extent, extremely well cultivated, and stocked with all the varieties of fruits that are found throughout the kingdom. There are about fourteen or fifteen hot-houses and green-houses in the county, for forcing fruits, &c.

The farmers in general have gardens adjoining to their farm houses, sufficient to produce abundance of common kitchen vegetables: but their attention is not much directed to those little spots, nor are they sensible of the comfort and advantages which might be derived from them, were a greater variety of vegetables introduced. In general, the cultivation of the gardens of farmers and cottagers extends only to potatoes, cabbages and greens.

CHAPTER X.

WOODS AND PLANTATIONS.

THIS part of Scotland appears in former times to have abounded with woods, as may be gathered from ancient records, and from the names of numbers of places in the neighbourhood of the mosses in the low part of the county. The Forest of Paisley is mentioned in Ragman's Roll 1296: Durskath wood appears in the abbot's rental book, 1525, as in the vicinity of Paisley, and the tenant is taken bound to maintain the ditches around the wood: to this wood, or forest, of which no vestige now remains, the names of the adjoining lands, Woodside, Oakshaw,[63] &c. evidently bear reference. In other parts of the county we meet with names of similar import, as Linwood, Fullwood, Walkinshaw, Hanging-shaw, Birkenshaw, &c. The county is in many parts still well covered with woods and plantations.

The natural, or copse, woods are chiefly situated in the parishes of Paisley, Houston, and Eastwood. The last mentioned parish probably contains one half of the whole. They are cut every thirty years; and in 1795, such of them as were well preserved, generally sold at from £25 to £30 per acre.[64] The quantity of copse-wood in the county may be near 500 acres; one cutting of which might be valued at that time at about £15,000, or, as they are cut periodically, at about £480 of yearly revenue. Their value has been gradually advancing during the last twenty-five years, in consequence of the great demand for alder and birch-wood for the numerous cotton mills; but, chiefly, in consequence of the rise of the price of oak-bark, which sold, about the year 1784, at only £5 per ton; in 1795 at £8 per ton; and now (1809) it brings £17. But the prices of wood and bark seem to be at present at their height; and at this advance, the revenue arising from periodical cuttings of copse-wood, may now be computed at £900 or £1000 per annum. The prevailing trees are birch, alder, ash, and oak. The woods are, in general, well preserved from the injury of cattle. Still they are very far inferior to the copse-woods in the neighbouring county of Dumbarton, where the vigorous growth of oak timber is so striking, that the periodical cuttings take place every twenty years. Greater care in draining, so as to encourage the growth of oak, and in thinning and clearing away hazels and other brushwood during the first years after cutting, and introducing oak plants, would be an improvement in the system of management.
Plantations.—The soil and climate are very favourable for forest trees; and numerous and extensive plantations are to be seen flourishing on the estates throughout the county. In some cases it had been the practice to plant the Scots fir alone, with-out any intermixture of other trees: at present, however, most proprietors, with more taste and fore-sight, have interspersed all the varieties of forest trees usually found in the kingdom. The plantations are, in general, well kept; additions to them are annually making; and there is reason to hope, that, hereafter, the naked and barren summits of the highest grounds, and such spots as cannot become the subject of culture, will be covered with thriving plantations. Mr M'Dowall, during the year 1793, besides other plantations, planted 89 Scots acres, called Skiff-park, in Lochwinnoch, in one field completely inclosed, with all the different varieties of trees, at the rate of 5000 trees to each acre; that land with the crop of trees, is now (1809) valued at £6000; and the whole plantations on that gentleman's estate have been estimated at above £30,000.

In planting forest trees, proprietors have, for a considerable time past, shown a very just predelection for the larix. This tree which was first planted in Renfrewshire about the year 1746, is extremely suitable to the climate. Some of them are now above 7 feet in circumference; and it is worthy of remark, that, fifteen years ago, in thinning some plantations at Castlesemple,[65] from twenty-nine to thirty-five years old, each larch was sold at from 12s. to 22s. while the best of the other trees of the same plantation brought only 5s. each. As a Scots acre will contain 380 trees, planted at the distance of 4 yards, which is room enough for the growth of trees of considerable size, the valuable produce which may be obtained from a plantation of larches, may hence be easily calculated. It is unnecessary here to enumerate the properties, and the durable nature, of this timber: they are sufficiently known, and have been fully detailed by different authors.[66]

In consequence of the rises of the price of foreign timber for two years, plantations of Scots fir have brought considerable prices. One gentleman sold a plantation,[67] extending to 13 acres, the trees partly forty and partly sixty years old, at £100 per acre. Another gentleman, sold an inclosure[68] of 21 acres, containing trees thirty-six years old, at £70 per acre.

It may be of importance to preserve some record of the growth of trees of different kinds contained in the same plantation. In a plantation forty-nine years old,

Oak measured 37

Beech, 42

Scots fir, 46

inches in circumference, at 3 feet from the ground; and the total height, 52 feet.

In an inclosure of 20 acres, planted in the east part of Renfrewshire, in 1777, some of the best of the trees measure, at 3 feet above the surface, as follow;

Larix, 50 inches in circumference;

Beech, 48;

Plane,45;

Scots fir, 43;

Oak,32;

Birch, .24;

Spanish chestnut, 21:

And the large inclosure already mentioned of 89 acres, called Skiff-park, planted in 1793, contains trees of the following dimensions, at 3 feet above the ground, in situations where they are well sheltered and the soil good:

Larix, 33 inches in circumference;

Scots fir,25;

Birch,.23;

Alder,23;

Elm, 23;

Beech,16;

Spruce fir, 16.

The most extensive copse-woods are found on the estate of Nether-Pollock, in the parish of Eastwood: the greatest extent of plantations is on the estate of Castlesemple, in the parish of Lochwinnoch: and the greatest quantity of aged trees is on the estate of Hawkhead, in the parish of Paisley; some of the' growing timber, there, measured at 3 feet from the ground, is of the following dimensions:

Kind of trees. Circumference. Diameter.

Ft. In. Ft. In.

1. Spanish chesnut,9. 10. 8. 1½

2. Beech.7 3

3 Plane, or Sycamore, 9 3 2

4 Oak,9 0 2

5 Poplar, 8 6 2

6 Ash,00 3

7 Elm, Scots,7 8 2

8 Willow7 6 2

9 Lime,.

10 Larix,

Gean or wild-cherry, 6 0 1

Birch 5 1 1

A few pheasants have lately been turned out in the woods and plantations of this county: they have already increased in number, and, if they are left undisturbed, it is hoped they may soon abound in this district.