potatoes; Mr William Skirving, Liverpool, for improved Swedish turnips, Mr James Biggar, King's Grange, near Castle-Douglas, and Mr Thomas Kennedy, Dumfries, for superior rye-grass seed; and Mr William Hodson, Walton, near Whitehaven, for superior Swedish turnips. The various speci. mens of seeds and roots exhibited by Messrs William Samson and Co., Kilmarnock, Mr J. Hannay, Dalquhan, Mr Thomas Hannah, Mosside of Maybie, Mr Andrew Duff, Denvale-Park, Mr James Smith, Ayr, Mr Glover, Torthorwald, Mr J. Johnstone, Conheath, William Maxwell, Esq. of Carruchan, Mr Daniel Macnaughtan, Airdrie, near Kirkbean, and Patrick Miller, Esq. Forrest,—were considered worthy of notice.

Amongst several new and rare species of seeds and plants exhibited by Messrs Lawson and Son, we cannot refrain especially noticing the following, viz. :—The Rohan potato; the golden globe mangel wurzel ; a very luxuriant specimen of Vicia villosa; the Cumberland new early oat, and the winter oat; Italian and Annat barleys; new ten-rowed Chevalier Wheat; diamond drop wheat; Whitworth's prolific wheat; Russell's white wheat, and Victoria spring wheat; Chenopodium quinoa, from the mountainous northern districts of South America; an improved Heligoland bean; Poa nemoralis var. nervosa ; the Gama grass from North America; Alsike clover from Sweden; several species of melilots; Pinus uncinata and pyrenaica, obtained from the Pyrenees through the kindness of Sir John Nasmyth, Bart., of Posso; and interesting specimens of the Pinus Austriaca and sylvestris, exhibiting the comparative superiority in growth of the former.

BUTTER AND CHEESE.

The competition in this department of the products of live stock was numerous, and the various specimens exhibited considerable excellence. The first premium for butter was awarded to Mrs Fairbairn, Westerkirk, Langholm; and the second premium to Mrs Trainer, dairy woman, Hensol. The first premium for full-milk cheese was awarded to Mrs Janet Mackie, Limekilns, Annan; and the second premium to Mr Gavin Hamilton, Little Milton, Kirkcudbright. For skim-milk cheese the first premium was awarded to Mrs Janet Mackie; and the second Mr William Niven, Barnmuir, Closeburn, Dumfriesshire.

WOOL.

For the best lot of combing wool, of seven fleeces, the premium was awarded to Mr William Marshall, Kirkland, Kirkcudbright.

For the best sample of white Cheviot wool, the premium was awarded to Mr Robert Laidlaw, Nether Cassock, Langholm.

SWEEPSTAKES.

The competition in this particular department was extremely limited, and only consisted of Ayrshire bulls, the sweepstakes on which was gained by Mr Theophilus Paton, Swinlees, Ayrshire; of Ayrshire queys, gained by Mr George Lorimer, Kirkland, Dumfriesshire; of Mares, gained by Mr Lawrence Drew, Carmyle Mills, Lanarkshire; of black-faced tups, gained by Mr Robertson, Broomlee, Peeblesshire; and of black-faced ewes, gained by Mr Andrew Weir, Linburn, Ayrshire, and Mr James Milligan, Kirkhope, Dumfriesshire.

The site may

The agricultural body in Dumfries and Galloway deserve much commendation in inducing Mr Heathcoat to bring his steamplough to Dumfriesshire. They subscribed the handsome sum of L. 100 to assist in defraying the expenses of its carriage from Lancashire. It was exhibited on the farm of Grain, in the Locher Moss, about seven miles in a south-east direction from Dumfries, near the ruins of Caerlavrock Castle. have been well suited for exhibiting the peculiar powers of the machine, but a part of the road to it was almost impassable for carriages, and the moss itself was so soft as scarcely to be able to carry the foot of man. Its exhibition, however, excited great interest, and attracted the notice of thousands, many of whom however went away impressed with very different notions of its utility.

On a more minute inspection than formerly of the steamplough, we find that the descriptive sketch which was given in No. 37. of the Society's Transactions, vol. xii. p. 72, was so essentially correct as to render any repetition of its description unnecessary on the present occasion. A more detailed account of the mechanical part of the plough may be found in the account published in Dumfries by Mr Ambrose Blacklock, Surgeon.

The principal interest which agriculturists feel in regard to this plough arises not so much from its peculiar construction, as its comparative capability to perform its work with the common plough, for unless it can perform its work as well, expeditiously, and with more economy than the latter, it will confer no boon on agriculture. It would be going too far to assert that Mr Heathcoat's plough is really a substitute for the common plough; but it should be borne in mind, that it is only an experiment, and that experiment has been chosen by its inventor to be tried on a species of ground which is not well adapted for the operation of the common plough. On this account the two implements are not fair objects of comparison. The steamplough certainly cuts the edges of the fibrous furrow-slices, and lays them over in a very perfect manner. It renders the rough surface of the wet bog an uniformly smooth plane. The ingenuity displayed by Mr Heathcoat to effect these results, has never been equalled, far less surpassed, and he certainly deserves the gratitude of agriculturists for attempting to solve a problem

upon which few men would have had the disinterestedness to devote so large a sum, and for which still fewer possess the requisite genius.

The few remarks which we shall make on the utility of this plough for agricultural purposes will be entirely of a practical nature. The first is, the mere ploughing of moss will never effect its drainage. We observe in Mr Blacklock's remarks on this subject, that much stress is laid on the fact of the inversion of the rough sod letting loose much water which runs away. This may be the case in any wet bog, such as Locher Moss is composed of, but the mere riddance of a little surface-water will never drain such a bog as to make it practically capable of bearing even coarse grasses, far less crops of any kind. To plough bog in so wet a state, is, in our opinion, just lost labour. It should first be thoroughly drained, and the plough might then be employed to turn over its surface as a preparation for succeeding white or green crops. But the machine may be converted into an engine for the drainage of moss, which in the first instance is of much more importance to it than ploughing. It could cut drains at stated distances by means of a plough constructed for the purpose, and dried peat would form excellent material for filling them up, in the same manner as we have seen successfully practised in the Bog of Allen, which every one knows is in Ireland. The rough surface, by being inverted, may not, will not in fact be soon decomposed, but it will in time become consolidated, and the surface will again be covered with the same kinds of wild plants that had been put out of sight by the ploughing. Without previous draining, therefore, it were a fruitless attempt to cultivate deep wet bog, but with draining effected by this engine, we have no doubt the plough would then cultivate it in a very efficient manner. But the smooth surface left by the plough can only be cultivated on dried, not wet moss. Nor do we see how that surface, even when dried, can be made serviceable to the raising of crops, without being ploughed, for it presents no irregularity of surface for the harrows to lay hold of and form a mould in which the seed may be inclosed. The smooth inverted furrow, therefore, may expedite the decomposition of the rough surface of moss, but the mould during the decomposition to

be successfully cultivated, will have to be ploughed on the principles of ordinary ploughing, and not with the steam implement, as presently constructed.

Of the two objections which Mr Blacklock, p. 15, notices, having been made against the use of the steam-plough, the one that it may be shivered to pieces, or the band broken, could not have been made by a practical person. The clipping and cutting apparatus attached, indicate in the clearest manner, that the plough is only intended to move through soft moss, and, in such situations, the only obstructions that are likely to present themselves are the trunks and roots of trees, which are very seldom so near the surface as the depth of the furrow-slice. The second objection against the weight of the machine, Mr Blacklock has not succeeded so successfully in removing; for, if the weight and position of the tender are found sufficient to counteract the resistance of the plough-furrow, there is no necessity, as far as the ploughing is concerned, for making the engine heavier than the tender.

There is nothing to prevent the application of the steamplough to the cultivation of ordinary land. A plough could be more easily contrived to practise ordinary tillage than the present moss-plough, and the power of the engine could be made commensurate with the requisite draught. But before the principle of Mr Heathcoat's engine could be adopted for the purpose, the ordinary system of ploughing would have to undergo an entire change. The furrow-slices being all laid over in the same direction, ridges would have to be dispensed with, and as the ploughing is simultaneously pursued on both sides, the engine will require to pass either along or across the middle of the field. In the former case the ploughing would always be a cross-furrow; in the latter, the furrows on either side of the engine will be short in all fields of small breadth. To preserve the direction of the furrows to the inclination of the ground, and at the same time avoid forming a headland across the middle of the field, the engine should traverse either headland along the side of the field while the tender was moved along the other. This would decidedly be the preferable arrangement, provided the headland chosen were straight, for unfortunately the engine cannot move along a curve. But before any of these me

thods could be practised, that is, before the land can be laid perfectly flat without a ridge, it must be previously thoroughdrained. The objection to the present structure of the steammachine being unable to turn on a curve, appears to us insuperable. In that case how can it enter and leave fields?

Whether all these difficulties to the use of the steam-plough in ordinary culture will ever be overcome, it is at present impossible to predict, but nevertheless we expect to live to see the day when they shall have been overcome.

THE AGRICULTURIST'S NOTE-BOOK, NO. I.

Embankments from the Sea.-There seems to be no operation connected with agriculture which promises more immediate and important results than the reclaiming of submerged lands in the estuaries of our large rivers. Till within these thirty years, the sole object contemplated in embanking submerged grounds, seems to have been the exclusion of water from the surface of soil which required only to be protected from its occasional invasions, and kept dry merely to make it eminently fit for most productive cultivation. Within the last twenty years, a system has been entered on, and is now, in the Forth and Tay in particular, being carried out to the most astonishing extent, not only of bringing into a cultivable state lands already, but for the periodical submergence, fit for cultivation, but of causing rivers to precipitate their mud in convenient localities, and so of creating fields where nothing before existed but a gravelly river bed, covered by from eight to twelve feet of water every tide, of the most unprecedented and unlooked for productiveness.

In the Forth, 350 acres of this sort of land have been, in the last twelve years, reclaimed by Lady Keith, at a cost of about L.21,000, and affording an annual return of about L.1400, or nearly seven per cent. In the Tay, seventy acres have been recovered, opposite to the shores of Pitfour, 150 on those of Errol, and twenty around Mugdrum Island, making in all 240 acres, at about an outlay of L.7200, yielding an annual rent of about L.1680, or upwards of twenty-three per cent.! On the Errol estate alone, 400 acres are just about to be embanked, in addition to the above 150, all of which may probably be in cultivation be