710 
<¢T also avail myself of this opportunity to 
add a discovery which I haye recently made ; 
and which, as being calculated to save time 
and labour, may deserve attention. ; 
«¢ Instead of paring away the bark, as had 
heretofore been the practice, aud, covering 
the stem with the composition, 1 now merely 
scrape off the loose, bark, and apply a mix- 
RURAL ECONOMY AND GARDENING. " 
ture of cow-dung and urine only (made ta ’ 
the consistence of a thick paint), with 4 
painter's brush ; covering the stem carefully 
over. This softens the old scabrous bark, © 
which peels off during the following winter 
and spring, and is succeeded by a fine smooth 
new Dork. 
W. Forsyt.” 
Art. IX. Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland. To. which 
is prefixed an Account of the principal Proceedings of the Society since \'799.. By Henry 
Mackenziz, £sq. one of the Directors. 
WE welcome with peculiar pleasure 
the appearance. of a. second volume of 
the transactions of this philosophical and 
truly patriotic society. It had been too 
much the. custom to consider a large 
proportion of the western and Highland 
districts of Scotland, from the poverty 
of the soil and inclemency of the sea- 
sons, as condemned by nature to perpe- 
tual sterility... The only valuable pro- 
duce of which they, were supposed ca- 
pable, was that of a hardy and valiant 
race of soldiers, whom it was both po- 
litic, and humane to allure from their 
storm-clad mauntains, and send them to 
sustain in every climate the untarnished 
honours of the British standard: at the 
command, and.under the guidance of 
their hereditary chieftains, from every 
rocky island, from. every piny moun- 
tain, from every grassy glen, poured 
forth, battalion after, battalion, an unin- 
termitted stream of heroes, eagerto con- 
firm their claim to the high unconquered 
spirit, of ancient Caledonia. . Nor have 
their efforts been in vain: Canada and 
Holland, Egypt and India, have wit- 
nessed their enduring patience of every 
hardship, and the disciplined impetuosity 
of their native valour... But peace, as 
well as war, has her triumphs : to estab- 
lish villages amidst the waste, to drain 
the black morass, and cover its unsightly 
barrenness with greem herbage, to bor- 
der the lonely torrent with bleach fields, 
and swell its murmurs with the sound of 
the loom; to, establish seats of com- 
merce upon the unfrequented shores, 
and to draw food and wealth from the 
inhospitable sea—these are the. greit ob- 
jects of the Highland Society, these are 
its claims to, the esteem and respect of 
the public. 
- The first article in the volume before 
us is an cjaborate essay by the late Dr, 
Walker, Natural History, Professor in 
the University of Edinburgh, on the ori- 
gin, properties, and uses of peate. 
4 
vol. 2d. Svo. pp. 540. 
Peat is produced from the successive 
decay of trees and smaller vegetables in 
all countries, where the heat is not sufii- 
cient to effect their total decomposition. . 
Some of the peat-mosses are of modern... 
formation, but by far the greater num-. 
ber, in countries that have been long in-. 
habited and civilized, are of very ancient , 
origin. In the bogs of Scotland are 
found the horns of the bison, af the elk, . 
and a still larger animal of the stag-, 
kind, although these animals have from 
time immemorial been extinct in the. 
island. The deep peat-mosses, contain- 
ing the trunks of trees, are probably the 
miost ancient, having been formed, by 
the successive decay of several genera- 
tions of timber: of this a remarkable 
instance is noticed by Dr. Iker in 
Strathcluony, in Invernessshire. — 
«« This is a very high inland tract, being 
the water-shed of the country between the 
two seas, It has formerly been a very thick 
extensive fir wood; but, there are now only 
some very old scattered trees standing in it. 
These have all flat bushy heads, leaning to 
the east, but the trunks are large, and consist 
of the finest timber. ‘This wood having: 
worn out of itself, has left behind it a thick 
body of peat moss, formed during the long 
period of its growth and decay. rge roots 
of fir trees, which had evidently been broken 
over, by the winds, were observed in this 
place. Some of these roots, with part of the 
trunk, in their natural position, were seen at 
the bottom of the peat stratumyjplaced in the 
gravelly loam on which they had grown; but 
above this loam there was a stratum of peat, 
about three feet deep, evidently formed dur- 
ing the growth and«lecay of these trees. In 
some places the old roots of other fir trees 
were seen two or three feet immediately above 
the former, with their fangs spread horizon- 
tally, having three or four feet of peat above 
them, It was clear that these roots belonged 
to trees of another generation, and of a date 
much posterior to the former; for they had 
only begun to grow after the trees rooted in 
the loam-had utterly decayed, and after the 
three intervening feet of peat had been formed 
by their growth and decay; and again over 
e 
