[Wi 8

lower grounds adjacent to the hills do not ſuffer ſo much'by the ſeverity of cold, as by frequent rains and changeable weather, circumſtances which in moſt caſes greatly retard operations in huſbandry, and the vigorous growth of plants. The town of Stirling, and the northern fide of Campfie bills, with the plains which they ſhelter, experience a cli« mate more dry and favourable. A piercing and long con- tinued eaſt wind, which ſometimes prevails in the end of ſpring and beginning of ſummer, is the chief inconveni- ence which this diſtri& ſuffers from the weather.

By a regiſter of the quantity of rain which fell in the town of Stirling, and which was meaſured by an accurate - hydrometer, it appears, that for the ſpace of five years, be- ginning in 1776, the annual average number of days in which there was rain, was 206, and the average quantity of rain that fell each year was 313 inches deep. The num- ber of rainy days and quantity of rain muſt, in the weſtern parts of the county, have been much greater.;

VOLLEN:

Theſe are extremely various, as may naturally be ex- pe&ed in a country ſo greatly diverſified with hill and dale as Stirlingſhire. Soils are differently diſtinguiſhed accord- ing to' the views which are taken of them. The crops which they are beſt adapted to produce have conſtituted a very common diviſion, as a paſture ſoil, a wheat ſoil, a tur- nip ſoil, and the like. Sometimes they are diſtinguiſhed by their predominant qualities, as wet, dry, light, heavy, cc. At other times they are claſſed according to the kind of earth that|prevails moſt in their compoſition, as clayey, - moſſy*, ſandy. The ſoil in the weſtern pariſhes generally

contains

* An expreſſion uſed in Scotland to denote a ſoil in which there is 2 conſiderable proportion of peat-earth, 2 ſubſtance generally known by the

name of moſs, This term is not altogether improper, as peat-earth is chicßy compoſed of decayed moſſes and their concomitant plants.