Very different was the success of a similar plan adopted under similar circumstances in 1794. We give the account in the words of an intelligent and authentic writer, Col. Symes,

In 1794, when impending famine aggravated the miseries of war, the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, at the recommendation of Government, transmitted to Lord Teignmouth, then Governor General of India, intelligence of the calamity that threatened Great Britain, desiring whatever aid the Goverment of India could supply. On receipt of the dispatch, 14,000 tons of shipping were freighted to carry rice to England, and were laden and cleared from the port of Calcutta in less than five months from the date of the arrival of the letter. This supply, with the exception of the casualties of the sea, arrived most opportunely for the relief of the poor of London, and reduced the price of that excellent article of food, to three halfpence per pound.' He adds, 'so extraordinary an exertion is neither so widely known, nor so justly appreciated as it merits. It is a circumstance which reflects the highest credit on all the parties concerned.'

It is probable, that the East India Company had been losers by their assistance in 1794; and that on this account, with the cautious propriety of merchants, they declined any immediate interference on a subsequent occasion.

H. Essay on the management of forests, by Mons. Pannelier D'Annel, translated from the French by Sir John Talbot Dillon, under secretary to the Board of Agriculture, addressed to Sir John Sinclair, with notes by the translator, and extracts from the reports of British surveyors on the same subject. Such of our readers as feel interested on the subject, will consult this essay itself, which is of very confined utility.

III. IV. and V. are papers relating to claims for premiums offered by the board for irrigation, accompanied by maps of the land irrigated.

VI. List of seeds from Sumatra, sent by Dr. Campbell, of Fort Marlborough, to Lord Carrington. These seeds, we are informed, were dispatched by the board to the West Indies, by the earliest opportunity. Among them are the benzoe, the copal, the cardamom, &c.; we shall be glad to hear of their success.

VII. On the introduction of the teak tree into Barbadoes, by Nathaniel Lucas, Esq. of Lynxford-Hall, Norfolk. We learn from Mr. L. that out of a number of East India seeds, sent to Barbadoes in 1799, only one, that of the teak-tree, vegetated. In July 1803, this tree was upwards of twenty-five feet high, thriving most luxuriantly, and at least five inches in diameter, at six feet from the ground. If this tree can be propagated in the West Indies, it will be an invaluable acquisition for the building of vessels; from its quality of resisting the worm, whose voracity proves so destructive to European oak, when brought into tropical climates.

VIII. Communications from John Christian Curwen, Esq. on friendly societies, and on steaming potatoes.

IX. On feeding sheep, by Thomas Estcourt, Esq.

X. On baking potatoes.

XI. On the analysis of soils, as connected with their improvement, by Humphrey Davy, Esq. We have already had an opportunity of giving an extract from this valuable paper; the whole of which we warmly recommend to every practical agriculturist who unites a knowledge and a love of chemistry, with the other requisites for constituting a rationally philosophical farmer. The same recommendation applies to the one immediately following; which is also numbered XI. by mistake. It is:

A communication on the use of green vitriol, or sulphate of iron, as a manure; and on the efficacy of paring and burning, depending partly on oxide of iron, by George Pearson, M. D.; read, No. vember, 1801. The experiments made by Dr. Pearson manifest that the salt of peat ashes, a manure that has been known and highly esteemed for some years, in Bedfordshire, consisted almost wholly of pure sulphate of iron, vulgarly called green vitriol. We refer the curious reader to Dr. Ingenhouz's essay on the food of plants and the renovation of soils, published in 1796 by the Board of Agriculture, wherein, amidst a great variety of scientific and interesting remarks on this subject, we find, in conformity with Dr. Pearson's opinion, a suggestion that the oxygenous principle might be successfully imparted to an exhausted soil, before the sowing of fresh corn, by applying one of the most concentrated acids divided among a heap of sand or mould. We disapprove of Dr. P.'s giving the extracts that form the appendix to his paper, at large, from Nicholson's Journal, Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, and the Medical and Chirurgical Review. It is a re mark of Dr. Johnson, that "illustrations drawn from a book easily consulted should be made by reference rather than by transcription."

XII. On burning lime with peat, by Mr. John Dodgson. This practice may be found eligible where the peat lies within a few yards of the lime kiln. We rather doubt whether the quality would be so good, the heat being less intense; we agree with Mr. D. that the lime should be used hot. The peat ashes are certainly an object of consideration.

XIII. On feeding horses, by Mr. Thomas Fisher.

XIV. Queries relating to Dairies, answered by John Con yers, Esq.

XV. Crop of a watered meadow of nine acres, at Priesley, in Bedfordshire, communicated by the Duke of Bedford.

XVI. Experiment on wheat, by R. P. Anderson, Esq. This

experiment was made in order to ascertain the produce of wheat dibbled respectively by two, three, and four, grains. in each hole: it is stated that the crop of the dibbled wheat, exceeded the quantity produced from any other method a result which fully agrees with our experience on this subject.

We class the following numbers together.

XVII. Account of a cottager; by Sir William Pulteney, Bart. XVIII. Account of the result of an effort to better the condition of the poor in a country village: and some regulations suggested, by which the same might be extended to other parishes of a similar description; by Thomas Estcourt, Esq.

XIX. Observations on the means of enabling a cottager to keep a cow, by the produce of a small portion of arable land; by Sir John Sinclair.

XXIV. Account of some cottagers; by Thomas Babington, Esq.

XXX. Reasons for giving lands to cottagers, to enable them to keep cows; by Thomas Thompson, Esq.

We are happy to perceive that the authors of these papers are strong advocates for an allotment of land to cottagers, and that opinions formerly held on this subject, seem to be giving way to the more humane and more politic system, recommended in these essays. We had marked many passages for extract, and could willingly transcribe pages of solid argument, and interesting detail. The paper of Mr. Estcourt displays the happiest results, from a plan adopted in the parish of Long Newnton, for the relief of the village poor, by letting to them small portions of land, by which the poor rates were reduced, in three years time, from 212l. 16s. tổ 12l. 6s.: yet the establishment of such a regulation as he suggests at the close of his paper, would be liable to many objections, and would be practicable in few si tuations. The observations of Sir John Sinclair tend to prove, that, contrary to opinions strenuously asserted, the system of granting small lots to industrious cottagers, has been no less applicable to the arable, than to the grazing districts. Mr. Babington states, that he has twenty-six small tenants, who are cottagers and village-tradesmen, that he is fully convinced that they can well afford to pay as high rents, as large farmers, for land suitable to their purposes; and that he has found all the predictions of larger farmers around him, of backward rents-ruined tenants-spoilt labourers and mecha nics-and endless trouble to himself, entirely fail. Mr. Thompson gives an interesting account of the distribution of land, in the parish of Humberstone, Lincoln, to persons of the above description; and details the pleasing result of it, both to the industrious tenants and to the parish in general,

We must refer to the papers themselves, but we cannot refrain from giving the substance of Mr. Babington's arguments to prove the advantages to be derived from this system, to the individuals who occupy the land, to the landlord, and to the community.

The occupiers of the land get a clear profit from it equal to from 47. to 87. on every cow they keep. Those who keep two cows are richer by at least 10l. a-year, than they would be had they no land; exclusive of the advantages they derive from raising potatoes, and other vegetables for their families and pigs, which cannot be estimated at less than from 17. to 31. per annum. This increase of income greatly adds to the comforts of the cottager's or village-tradesman's family; comforts which are further augmented by the nature of the articles produced by their land. They obtain from it milk for their children, which is generally procured with much difficulty by the village-poor; for a hog, whey and butter-milk, which with offal, potatoes, and cabbages, enables them to keep one of the most useful animals a poor man can possess. They are still more benefited by the improvement of their habits, than they are by the increase of their comforts. When they have any spare time, the men go to their land and their stock, rather than to the alehouse: and the women employ many hours in the care of their cows and dairies, which would be otherwise worse than lost in idleness and gossiping. Their characters are also improved by their endeavours to obtain the good opinion of their landlord; by their attachment to good order in proportion as they become possessed of property, and enjoy its advantages; and by the prospect they have of supporting their families without having recourse to parochial relief, and of seeing their children well brought up and respectable in life.

The landlord is benefited in various ways, by thus contri-. buting to better the condition of the poor. Land in the hands of the labouring classes improves faster, from its garden-like cultivation, than that occupied by more wealthy tenants. The former have always plans on foot for increasing the fertility of their little spots. The tendency of this system to reduce the poor-rate, by lessening the number of the poor likely to become chargeable, is no small advantage to the land owner, who ultimately pays all the charges on his land. But a ge nerous mind will receive a more valuable compensation,-in the consciousness of enabling the more deserving class of poor to exert their industry, and to employ their little capital, to the best advantage; thus adding essentially to their com forts, improving their morals and habits, and raising them to higher rank in society.

The benefits which accrue to the individuals are a general advantage, and increase the amount of public wealth and prosperity. The more wealthy farmer is regularly supplied with sober and industrious husbandmen, above parochial dependance, though not above labour, who living around and intermixed with his land are guardians of his property, watchful against depredation, and ever ready with their assistance at his call; the productions of the earth are augmented; industry and health are promoted; economy is studied; and a robust and flourishing pea santry is encouraged, who have a stake in the welfare of their country, and who unite the desire and the ability to defend it.

Such is the picture we would fondly draw for our native land; yet one thing is still needful; one thing that is essential to human happiness in the best circumstances, and sufficient for it in the worst. In the midst of schemes and projects and improvements, it seems hard that the diffusion of religious truth should have found so little patronage. We can take upon us to assure the patriot and philanthropist, that when fairly tried, it has been uniformly successful.

XX. An experimental essay on salt as a manure, and as a condiment mixed with the food of animals. By the Rev. Edmund Cartwright, of Woburn. The result of Mr. C.'s experiments is de. cidedly in favour of salt as a manure, both when applied by itself, and in conjunction with other manures. It is much to be regretted that the strictness of the excise regulations, and the enormous duties on salt, prevent its beneficial application to agriculture. But so great is the jealousy of the revenue over this lucrative object of smuggling, that the refuse salt, which would be of the highest benefit to the neighbouring lands, is, in Cheshire and in Worcestershire, thrown into the rivers under the inspection of the excise officers who attend the salt works. It has been proposed to exempt salt, intended for agricultural purposes, from the duties, and in order to prevent its application to other uses, that the excise officers should mix it with soot before delivery. This appears to be an expedient which is more peculiarly deserving of attention, as we find, by Mr. C.'s experiments, that salt and soot (one quarter of a peck of the former to one peck of the latter) produced by far the heaviest crop of all his five and twenty different trials. Neither good nor evil effects appear to have arisen in the experiments with salt, as a condiment, when mixed with the food of hogs, the only animals on which they were made. We have known it beneficial to sheep in this country; and in America, we believe also in Spain, it is thought essential to their welfare.

XXI. On rearing calves. The writer of this paper, with

VOL. II.

3 E

.