the nccessity of supplying by art, what art had taken away. It was now, therefore, that manures and amendments* came to be studied and understood: dung, lime, marl, and gypsum, were employed in various modes, and in different quantities, and to these were superadded, deep and repeated ploughing, harrowing and rolling. Fine and abundant harvests were the consequence, and no one could any longer doubt, but that great labour and expenditures, applied to the amelioration of the soil, would produce great and beneficial effects. But this discovery could not come alone, and, if not accompanied, was soon followed, by another, viz: that it was possible to buy even fine and abundant harvests at too high a price.

With this important truth in agricultural economy, our author does not appear to have become acquainted till 1813; when, returning to England from St. Helena, and employing himself in making up an account of profit and loss on a clay farm of 299 acres, he perceived, that every arable acre brought him in debt at least 20s. sterling per annum. He, therefore, very wisely, suspended his wheat culture, and resolved to give up farming altogether, if he could not devise some other mode of cultivation, far less expensive.' The book before us, is a history of the experiments made with this view, and of their result; and is, in our opinion, well worth the 75 cents it costs, and the hour, or hour and a half, taken to read it.

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Like most other inquirers, Mr. Beatson began by consulting the best authors,-but, probably having, like Dean Swift's captain, a professional horror of books, he soon gave them up, and resorted to his fields' for the practical information he sought. 'I knew,' says he, that they would not mislead me; and I knew, that what succeeded on a small scale, was likely to an6 swer upon a larger; because in both cases, there would be the same soil, the same climate, and the same influences of the 'atmosphere; all performing their several functions in the hid'den processes of vegetation. Accordingly, I proceeded upon this plan; and resolved implicitly to follow the dictates of my own judgment, in ascertaining effects, without troubling my'self with causes.'

With this judicious resolution, Mr. Beatson began his experiments; and, as a substitute for lime, first tried Lord Meadowbank's compost of peat and dung, which,' he says, ' produced

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*The French agriculturalists take a distinction between manures and amendments. The first of these terms they apply exclusively to vegetable or animal bodies, in a state of decomposition-the other, to sand, when added to clay, or vice versa.

+ See page 8.

considerable effect.' His next experiment was made with calcined marl; on the supposition, that as the basis of that substance is calcarious, its effect (when calcined) would be similar to that of lime. Nor was he disappointed in the calculation; for a top dressing of this, given to two acres of wheat, in the quantity of 300 bushels per acre, rendered the crop very luxuriant.

It was at this stage of his operations, that he first became acquainted with Mr. Craig's practice of employing burnt clay as a manure; and he immediately set about constructing kilns for burning that substanee. It was not, however, till he had improved on the plan of this gentleman, that he entirely succeeded: The improvement consisted, in so placing the fires, as to furnish them at will with fresh supplies of fuel; whereas in the kilns of Mr. Craig, if from rainy weather, or from the dampness of the peat employed as fuel, the fire was either extinguished or checked, the process was at an end, and the whole of the labour lost; for on his plan, no new supply of fuel could be given.

As in our opinion, the structure of the kiln, and the manner of charging it, form the groundwork of the whole system, we think this the proper place for introducing a description of both; though in doing so, we somewhat depart from the order observed by the writer.

When the scite of the kiln,' says he, is determined on, the surface soil should be smoothed and levelled, and the upper dimensions (21 feet by 9) accurately traced the body of the kiln is then excavated-the sides and ends gradually sloping [to the bottom.] When the excavation has been completed to the intended depth, the floor of the kiln is also levelled and smoothed, and the furnace and flue, from the breast to the back, traced on the floor and excavated perpendicularly. The trench, or flue, has a gradual declination from the back part, (for the purpose of carrying off water,) and its sides are lined with bricks, placed lengthwise. These two walls, 4 1-2 inches [each,] form the pier or support of the arch, which is made with arch bricks, laid also lengthwise; so that each arch is nine inches broad, leaving open intervals of 4 1-2 inches. This open arch should have three ties or continuation of bricks [across,] one along the key or centre, and the other two along the sides, at half the distance between the key and the spring of the rock. These ties render the whole of the open arch firm and strong, and not liable to be deranged by the heavy load of clay to be laid upon it.

At first the clay is laid on carefully, in large pieces; leaving wide spaces for the admission of heated air, all along the arch of the Vol. IV.

flue. When the clay has covered this, to the height of two or three feet, it may be thrown into the kiln; the largest pieces first, and the smaller reserved for the upper covering. The clay should be

rather in a moist state, because if laid on too dry, it is apt to become hard by the heat: but if damp or moist, the whole mass becomes steamed and calcines into a light, porous substance, which easily pulverizes, if exposed to air and moisture.

Sometimes I have used for fuel large roots, in a rough state, worth not more than four shillings a cord, and sometimes kiln faggots of the value of 4s. the 100. With these faggots I made an accurate experiment in a small kiln, 21 by 9, (the size above described) having a furnace and open arch flue. The result was, that

with 275 faggots, and half a cord of roots, 80 cart loads (or 1200 bushels) were completely calcined, at an expence of only 13 shillings for fuel-or less than twopence per cart load. The whole expense was 10 pence per load.

The scite of the kiln should be as near as possible to the material to be calcined. The plough is useful in raising the clay. If the slags (lumps) be too large, they should be cut with the spade. The best situation for a kiln, is a steep, sloping bank of clay, in which the furnace may be placed low. This is a very material point-because the lower the furnace, the deeper may be the excavation of the body of the kiln, and the more capacious it may be made.'*

Having established efficient kilns of the above description, he was able to draw from them annually from 16, to 2400 cart loads, at the very cheap rate of 10 pence the load, of 16 bushels. But the efficacy of this manure yet remained to be established, and to this end, Mr. B. instituted a great variety of experiments, on not more than two or three square rods each; the object of which was, to compare the power of burnt clay, with that of lime, of dung, of marl, and of wood ashes. The result of these proved, that in no case, was the clay inferior to either of the others, and that in some cases, it was superiorleaving him (in the comparison of time) a clear saving of 67. 10s. per acre. The comparison, with dung, is thus stated :In a small field of wheat, where I had four burnt-clay experi'ments, around which was a space unmanured, and beyond it 'all the rest of the field manured with rotted dung, at the rate of forty cart loads the acre, and the whole scarified, harrowed, and drilled, exactly in the same manner. The clay experi⚫ments maintained a very striking superiority, during the growth

* Ground and elevation plans of a kiln of more capacity, with additional flues, are to be found in the book, and may be usefully consulted by those who propose erecting such works.

+ See page 10.

' of three successive crops: the first was a mixture of oats and 'tares, and the second and third were wheat. At the time of 'reaping the wheat this year, the four [clay] experiments, which 'had respectively, at the rate of ten, twenty, thirty and forty 'cart loads of clay ashes per acre, were all greatly superior in 'produce, and perfectly clean and free from weeds; whilst the dunged part was absolutely choaked with knot and other gras'ses, and vastly inferior in produce, although the whole had been 'twice hoed, during the growth of the crop.' These experiments, in themselves, very much recommend Mr. B.'s doctrines and practice in relation to manures, and become perfectly decisive, when we are told, that a farther experience of six years, has not at all shaken their authority.

The next step in Mr. B.'s economical march, was to satisfy himself, that the whole, or nearly the whole, expenses of summer fallowing, was useless or worse. In this, he soon and perfectly succeeded-but as this chapter is rather theoretical than practical, we pass it by without doing more, than to quote from it the following passages; which appear to aim at bringing about a compromise between the fallowers and the anti-fallowers, or the drillers and broad-casters.

'I have said that fallowing of land, is considered indispensable in the broad-cast husbandry-but it seems to me, that if it were conducted in a different manner;-if dung were seldom permitted to be put on arable land, for corn crops; if burnt clay, or marl, or soil, were substituted for lime; and if the stubble of every crop preceding that of wheat, were loosened by baulk-ploughing and scarifying, and afterwards raked, with a portion of the soil containing the roots and seeds and burned; I am of opinion, that by these easy methods (which effectually clean the land, and produce a finer pulverization) even in the broad-cast system, fallowing might be dispensed with.

'In addition to this method of attaining, at a very trifling expense, all the ends proposed by summer fallowing, another has occurred, in contemplating this very important subject, which is, to meet the broad-casters half way to allow them to sow the seed in the usual manner, and immediately afterwards, without harrowing, to throw the seed in ridges or rows, nine inches or more, apart. This method I have lately practised, upon a field of nine acres, with an implement having four shares, which raises the seed and soil vertically, and then laps them over to the right and left, so as entirely to deposit and cover the seed to the depth of two or three inches.'

Mr. B., having thus relieved himself from all unnecessary expense, in two of the great operations of farming, (manuring and fallowing,) his experiments were next directed to the plough, and

to the means of substituting for it other instruments, less expensive in themselves, better adapted to the purpose of breaking and pulverizing the soil, and more moderate in their demands of animal power, in giving to them the necessary execution.

No one, gifted with tolerable powers of observation, and placed like Mr. B. on a stiff clay soil, could be long in discovering the difficulty of reducing it to that state of pulverization which is essential to the exercise of its productive faculty; but it has not occurred to many, even of the keenest intellect, that the plough, (the instrument employed to cure this defect in the soil,) was badly adapted to that end, and, in some cases, and in a certain degree, the cause of the very evil we complain of. If Mr. B. was not the first to make this discovery, he at least has (like Robert Fulton in the case of the steam boat) a wellfounded claim to priority in its use; because. till his experiments were made and succeeded, no farm in Europe was wholly and advantageously cultivated by scufflers and scarafiers. But we will not longer detain the reader by any farther remarks of our own, from a view of the circumstances by which our author was led to this practice, nor from the effect of it on the produce, in quantity, of his own stiff clay.

'I soon perceived,' he says, that, by the usual mode of deep and frequent ploughing, there was scarcely a possibility of reducing strong clayey lands, such as mine, to the degree of fineness required for the drill. A respectable and intelligent landholder in the neighbourhood, when I mentioned to him my intention of practising the drill husbandry, told me it would not do--he had given it a trial and gave it up, because he could never get his land fine enough. After considering what might be the cause of this failure, I inferred that those deep and frequent ploughings were injudicious, too much being attempted at one operation ;-that the first ploughing not only buried the seeds of weeds, beyond recovery, which had fallen on the surface, but brought up immense slags which being cut transversely by the second ploughing, left the field covered by huge clods, in which were securely locked up some of those seeds, which had no chance of vegetating till the close of the fallow: consequently their progeny, which the fallow was intended to destroy, would have equally the benefit of these laborious and expensive operations and of the manure, as the wheat itself, and would grow with it and rob it of a part of that nourishment it would otherwise have had. I had, at this time, a field of five acres, which had remained in fallow five months. It had received but one ploughing, and had no manure after four preceding crops. Early in March I began to prepare it for oats; I was advised to plough it, but as the slags were at that time as hard as