{ 699 ) 
CHAPTER XVII. 
RURAL ECONOMY AND GARDENING, 
, 
'» THE last year has not produced much of value in farming or gardening.. The 
Agricultural Survey of Peebles, by Mr. Findlater, is drawn out to an unnecessary 
length, and is more important for its statistical than its agricultural details. The 
new edition of Dr. Hunter’s Georgical Essays presents a copious but not very ju- 
dicious selection of memoirs; garden experimentalists seem to be confided in too 
“much, and practical agriculturalists to be unwisely neglected. The prize essays 
ef the Highland Society contain much valuable information, and though pecu- 
Jiarly calculated to be of use to the proprietors and cultivators of the more negs 
‘ected parts of Scotland, will be perused by every one for whom natural history 
| and rural economy have any charms. 
Arr. I. 
_ THE two first editions of the Georgi- 
‘eal Essays have, we believe, been Jong 
out of print; the first was published 
ag the year 1771, the second in 1777. 
a York Agricultural Society, which 
ee birth to them, kas been dissolved 
Nearly twenty years, and the publication 
‘was discontinued before that time, in 
Berens of the death of several of 
1@ most active members. Dr. Hunter 
has survived many of his old friends, 
d, by the aid of others who have suc- 
ceeded them, has expanded the original 
work from one volume into four. Nor is 
it to stop here: Dr. Hunter purposes to 
make the present the basis of a more ex- 
nsive publication, “It is my inten- 
tion,” says he, “to draw into one focus 
li that is widely diffused through num- 
berless volumes of agricultural informa- 
ion; and, in so doing, I expect to be able 
9 exhibit to the favourers of agriculture 
a field well cultivated, and free from all 
linsightly and noxious weeds. In this 
‘Wproposed collection there will be some 
Papers that never appeared in public, 
but by far the greatest number have 
en published in different periodical 
ks.”’ At the conclusion of the fourth 
ume we have some further particulars 
‘tothe extent of the proposed plan. 
%n order to mark the progress of agri- 
ti 
p 
CAipiedl stays, » Ru At. Bowen, , MDs PeRsSu Laan Bo, -deoeolai 
f 8vo. pp. about 570 each. 
cultural improvements, I have it in con- 
templation to publish two volumes an- 
nually, in the manner of this selection; 
but in the execution of the design I shall 
be directed by the opinion that the public 
may entertain of the present publica- 
tion.” 
On comparing the first volume of the 
work before us with the second edition 
of the Georgical Essays, which chanced 
to be on our shelf, we find the contents 
pretty nearly the same; two or three of 
the Essays inserted here are not in our 
edition; but all, we believe, contained 
in that are to be found in one or other of 
these volumes. ‘The present is a selec- 
tion, and a good one; we are told that 
it contains several original papers, but 
by far the majority are well known to 
the public. Dr. Hunter has not scrupled 
to extract very freely from the trans- 
actions of Literary Societies, County 
Reports, Magazines, &c. kc. He ought 
to have distinguished the ofiginal essays 
from those which had already been pub- 
lished. We have seen a great many of 
these in different modern publications ; 
many more may have escaped us, which 
are, nevertheless, familiar to many of our 
readers ; on whichaccount it isunsafetono- 
tice any particular papers, lest they should 
not be so new to others as tous. Dr, H, 
