196 ON THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF MAKING AND 



the interest of tlie money expended, tlie actual return from 

 the land is increased more than sevenfold. This result will be 

 obtained on Glengioy, besides converting it from a bleak, exposed, 

 uninteresting subject into a clothed and slieltered one. 



The reporter is so convinced of the profitableness of planting, 

 compared, or rather contrasted, with every other species of land 

 improvement, that, apart from the subject of this report, he has 

 planted upwards of twelve millions of trees of all sorts within 

 the last twelve years. One of these plantations, on the estate of 

 Strathkyle, in Easter Eoss, contains about eight and a half 

 millions of plants, and extends in one block to o950 acres, being 

 enclosed with a ring fence of wire upwards of 20 miles in length. 



If the subject of planting were properly understood, a large 

 proportion of the Highlands should be planted with Scots fir and 

 larch, and abundant emj^loyment found for many times the 

 present population, and all wild schemes for cultivating our 

 waste lands might then be laid aside. 



In a comparison between the profitableness of planting or 

 reclaiming land for cultivation, the advantage is enormously in 

 favour of planting. The planter, instead of at great expense 

 trenching the land and removing stones and roots, slits in little 

 plants of a foot in height, and leaves them there quietly to take 

 up the valuable ingredients of the subsoil by their roots, and 

 deposit them year by }'ear in leaf on the surface ; thereby effec- 

 tually trenching the soil withovit anj^ cost whatsoever, besides 

 reaping a highly remunerative crop of timber. 



With the limited extent of land in the British Isles, and a 

 superabundance of labour, it is sad to see the vast extent of 

 land still l}'ing waste and unprofitable, simply fi'om want of 

 thought. As to the cost, there seems to be abundance of money 

 to invest in the improvement of every savage country on the face 

 of the earth, but none to develop our own extensive wastes at 

 home. 



ON THE DIFFERENT :METH0DS OF MAKING AND CURING 

 BUTTER IN THIS COUNTRY AND ABROAD. 



By .John M'Culloch, Deiibie Mams, Lockerbie. 

 [Premium — Ten Sovereigns.l 



Butter has from time immemorial formed a portion of and held 

 a high place in the dietary of civilised nations. Among the 

 cultivated and refined of modern times, it is considered a crown- 

 ing luxury for at least one, sometimes two or more meals ; where 

 it is absent the table is incomplete and a void left which no 

 other article can ailequately fill. But it is butter perfect, or 



