lords will of course render that of the selfish, by contrast, more amenable to public opinion. Fortunately, however, for the encouragement of industrious and improving tenants, landlords now-a-days know their own interests better, than to take improper advantage of the improvers of their own properties. Indeed, we know it to be the practice of some of them to discharge the expenses of cutting and tiles, and charge the tenants with 5 per cent. on the outlay, a very equitable arrangement, and one equivalent to a loan of capital to the tenant.

These remarks might fitly terminate the thoughts on draining as a profitable outlay of capital; but there are some considerations of a practical nature connected with thorough-draining, which yet deserve attention. Some farmers are puzzled about the draining of flat fields. There are very few fields that are perfectly flat, but there are none that the spirit-level cannot give ample information of. A fall of one foot in three hundred, with a tile and sole opening, is quite sufficient for the flow of water. In order to increase the fall, the drains may be cut a little. deeper towards the lower ends. These expedients will secure egress to the water out of the drains; but the fall on every ridge, from its crown to the bottom of the drain in each furrow, is of itself quite sufficient for the drainage of the ridges.

The ameliorating effects of thorough-draining should not be expected to develop themselves at once. A little time is requisite to get quit of the water with which the soil above the level of the bottoms of the drains are surcharged, besides the absorption of the fresh rain that may have fallen on the land in the mean time.

Much unnecessary fear is expressed about bringing the till to the surface. If much cold wet clay, in proportion to the soil, is brought up at once immediately after draining, and mixed with the soil with only one ploughing, the probability is, that the succeeding crop of corn will not be much worth; but if a little of it is brought up before winter, and subjected to the influence of rain, frost and air, manured and intimately mixed with the surface soil, the succeeding crop itself will most probably repay the expense of draining. For a corn crop, however, to succeed well after thorough-draining, the drains should be formed in autumn or winter on lea which is to be ploughed in spring

in the ordinary way, without bringing up any of the clayey subsoil. Should it be desired to expose any of the subsoil, it is best ploughed up with the stubble when drained before winter, and the first crop should either be potatoes or turnips, perhaps always the latter, in order to afford more time for the working and exposure of the land.

There is no urgent haste for breaking up the pan or band of the clayey subsoil immediately after thorough draining. With a little patience the desiccating power of the draining will effect much for the drainer in that way. The pan is generally composed of a portion of clay indurated with an oxide of iron. So long as water is supplied before draining in a stagnant state to the ferruginous substance, the oxidation progresses and accumulates. When the source of oxidation, on the other hand, is removed by draining, the pan loses its induration, moulders into a loose earth, and the iron in it forms new combinations with acids in the form of salts, which, on dissolution, either assist vcgetation, or neutralise the injurious properties of other obnoxious ingredients in the soil. A deep ploughing after this change has been effected, will accomplish more for rendering the soil a fit pabulum for plants, than any previous deep or subsoil ploughing.

Nor should lime be too hastily laid on land after being thorough-drained. The more intimately lime is mixed in or with the soil, the greater are its benefits. It cannot be intimately mixed with the soil until the latter is properly pulverized; and the soil can only be properly pulverised, after having been in the first instance well worked. These are progressive operations and require time. Lime can only thus be judiciously applied to the soil when in preparation for the fallow-crop. As to the time for its application, there will hardly be time before the planting of potatoes, and we believe it has been found to bestow no immediate advantage on turnips, so that it may be applied immediately after the removal of the potato in autumn or the turnip crop in spring. It can be most equally spread on the ground pattered by sheep when fed on turnips, and ploughed in immediately after with a light cross-furrow; and the subsequent seed-furrow in the direction of the ridges will most effectually mix the soil and it together; or it can be spread after the cross-furrow and immediately harrowed in. This latter plan, though not so easy for carting, or perfect for spreading, is never

theless the safest for preserving the lime, for should rain or wind ensue after the lime has been spread upon the pattered land, it might become affected by the rain or blown about by the wind, before it be covered by the plough-furrow. The succeeding crop of barley will derive immediate benefit from the lime, in strengthening the straw and giving it a bright colour, and in hardening the grain and rendering it more fit for malting.

We conceive we cannot present a greater inducement, or af ford a greater encouragement, to the farmer for prosecuting any operation by a reference to stronger facts than those we have at present offered for the prosecution of thorough-draining. Let him therefore commence it, if he have not already done so, with vigour, pursue it with confidence, and he will assuredly long reap the fruits of it with profit.

ON THE PROPAGATION OF THE APPLE-TREE.

IN the number of this Journal for September 1837, I observe the following statement, among the Miscellaneous Notices :"Propagation of Apple Trees.-A new plan for increasing plantations of apple-trees has lately been carried into extensive practice by the horticulturists of Bohemia. Neither seed nor grafting is required. The process is to take shoots from the choicest sorts, insert them in potatoes, and plunge both into the ground, leaving but an inch or two of the shoot above the surface. The potato nourishes the shoot, while it pushes out roots, and the shoot gradually grows up and becomes a beautiful tree bearing the best. fruit, without requiring to be grafted. Whatever may be the success of the undertaking, its novelty at least is an inducement to give it a fair trial."

I beg leave to remark that six or eight years ago a similar statement was published. It was not then represented as a general practice, but merely as the successful operation of an individual in Bohemia. In consequence of the publication, I immediately made the experiment. I took cuttings of various apple-trees, and inserted each cutting in a potato, and planted the potato and cutting, leaving only an inch or two of the shoot above the surface. The consequence was that the potatoes did grow, but the apple-tree cuttings did not grow. It then occurred to my gardener, James Smith, who had long been employed as a nurseryman, that we should have sliced off the eyes of the potatoes. Next year this was done and the experiments repeated, but the potatoes still grew, but not the apple cuttings. The experi

ments were tried, not only in the country but also in the back ground of a house in the New Town of Edinburgh, but in no instance with success.

It has since occurred to me that to complete the experiment we ought to have boiled the potatoes, but this was not done and had not been suggested by the publication which mentioned the practice. In the meanwhile, so far as raw potatoes are concerned, my opinion necessarily is, that the plan of rearing orchards by cuttings inserted in potatoes may, for aught I know, succeed in Bohemia, but it wont do for Scotland. I do not recollect whether we made a trial with turnips instead of potatoes, although I remember we at one time talked of trying turnips. Most people are no doubt aware that there is a species of apple-tree which can be reared from cuttings, like a willow or a poplar, and produces sweet apples without engrafting. I have two of these trees in bearing. I got the cuttings from Mr John Geddes of the Verreville Works, Glasgow. They were taken from a tree that had been removed from the College garden, and that tree was said to have been propagated from a tree belonging to the Monastery of Aberbrothock.* The apples are rather small, round, and may be eaten from the tree, being quite sweet.

In the mean while the intelligence from Bohemia suggests this remark, that, although the community are greatly indebted to those who bring home intelligence of new and valuable improvements in any art, yet a traveller ought to be aware that it is not enough to mention a foreign practice in general terms. By doing so he merely gives rise to disappointing experiments and a distrust of all such communications. To bring home an improvement beneficially, the traveller ought to endeavour to become acquainted with the minute steps of the process adopted by the foreigners. In this case, for example, the season of planting should have been mentioned, the kind of cuttings, if of last year's growth only, or with the addition of part of a former year's growth, also if the potato had been subjected to any preparatory operation, if potatoes of a special sort are used, if the ground is prepared in any particular manner, &c.

F.

The Arbroath Oslin or Original Apple, here alluded to, is a well known variety. It may be added, that all the burr-knot and codlin tribes of appletrees grow freely from cuttings.-EDIT.

ON FATTENING CATTLE ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD.*

By Mr JOHN BRODIE, Amisfield Mains, Haddington.

AGREEABLY to the conditions, the Committee of Management, immediately after I had intimated my intention of competing, appointed an efficient Sub-committee to assist me in dividing a lot of twenty Aberdeenshire polled cattle, into four lots of five each, and also to superintend and report upon the manner in which the experiments were conducted.

The cattle were bought at Falkirk on the 12th of October, and on the 24th were lotted, and put into separate yards, each of which had ample space, and shelter from the weather, by covered sheds, for the several lots which were distributed among them; and conceiving that the object which the Agricultural Society had in view in offering this premium, was to find out a substitute for turnips, each lot of cattle had a mixture of food allowed them, with the exception of lot No. 1, which was altogether fed upon turnips and straw, and may on that account be designated the trial lot; No. 2 had half the quantity or weight of turnips which was allowed to No. 1, with 30 lb. of linseed-oil cakes, as a substitute for the remainder of the turnips; lot No. 3 had the same weight of turnips which was given to No. 2, and had ground corn in place of the oil-cakes; the fourth lot got offal from a grain whisky distillery, and a portion of ground beans, which was mixed into their draff every morning. By following out this arrangement, we have ascertained the quantity of turnips saved,—the value of the turnips in feeding by themselves, contrasted with the other substances,-and their value as an auxiliary feeding when used with those richer substances, which, without some coarser food, will neither be an economical nor a beneficial food for cattle. All the lots had fresh straw given to them daily, which was not weighed, and below is a statement of the food consumed, and the expense incurred in the fattening of each lot: :

Report made by Mr Brodie in 1837 on this subject in competition for the premium offered by the United East Lothian Agricultural Society.-EDITOR