MeanHs Ahercromhie. — Stephens's Practical Irrigator. 317 



this Magazine, or in our Encyclopaedia, we shall extract it for the benefit 

 of our readers. 



Mean, James, Head Gardener to Sir Abraham Hume, Bart. : 



1. The Practical Gardener's Companion; or, Horticultural Calendar, 

 containing the latest Improvements in Horticultural Practices. To 

 which is annexed, on a Plan never before exhbited, the Garden Seed 

 and Plant Estimate. Edited from an original MS. of J. Abercrombie, 

 Author of the " Practical Gardener," and other works. London. 

 2s. Qd. 



2. Abercrombie's Practical Gardener; or, Improved System of Modern 

 Horticulture, adapted either to Large or Small Gardens ; designed to 

 assist those Gentlemen who manage their own Gardens. Third Edi- 

 tion, revised, with Additions and the latest Improvements. London. 

 12mo. 7*. Qd. boards. 



Stephens, George, Drainer, Member of the Nerecian and Wermlandska 

 Agricultural Societies in Sweden: Tiie Practical Irrigator; being an 

 Account of the Utility, Formation, and Management of Irrigated Mea- 

 dows, with a particular Account of the Success of Irrigation in Scotland. 

 To which is added, a Practical Treatise on straightening Water-courses, 

 protecting River Banks, and embanking low Lands. Edinburgh. 8vo. 

 Is. 6d. boards. 



The author here " lays before the reader the result of more than twenty 

 years' experience in the practice of irrigation, &c., in England, Sweden, and 

 Scotland," which he hopes " may prove the niet;ns of introducing" these 

 practices more extensively into Scotland. He does not profess to have dis- 

 covered any new principle, or any new application of principles already 

 known; but " having been frequently applied to by those for whom he has 

 had the honour of converting land into irrigated meadow, straightening 

 water-courses, protecting river banks, and embanking low land, for a prac- 

 tical account of the different methods," &c. &c., " in compliance with 

 these wishes he lays before the public the following practical essays." 



We have looked over these essays, which are short, plain, and practical, 

 and chiefly contain accounts of what has been done by the author in dif- 

 ferent parts of Scotland and in Sweden. It is gratifying to see confirmed 

 the great utility of irrigation, in the mountainous districts of the Highlands 

 of Scotland, and in the cold cliiuate of Sweden. In fact it is clear, from 

 the general experience on this subject, that wherever grass will grow, it may 

 be made to grow more abundantly by a judicious irrigation, which, in the 

 most unfavourable caees, at least adds heat in winter, and moisture in 

 summer. 



" In the year 1808 I was employed to survey, with regard to draining, a 

 large tract of boggy land, belonging to Mrs. Grill, of Soderfors Iron Manu- 

 factory, in the province of Upland, in Sweden. After having taken a ge- 

 neral view of upwards of 500 Scotch acres, I found about eighty lying 

 nearest the large river Dal, coming from the province of Dalcarlia, well si- 

 tuated for irrigation ; and although there was nothing of the kind in the 

 country previously to that time, the proprietress, at the first suggestion, 

 determined, whatever the expense might be, to have an irrigated meadow 

 formed, complete in all its parts; for she was confident that draining in the 

 first place, and afterwards irrigating for grass, would undoubtedly be one of 

 the greatest improvements to a country where the summers are so gene- 

 rally very dry, and of course hay very scarce. 



" The whole of this tract was reclaimed from the bed and overflowing of 

 the above-mentioned river, by a very ex[)ensive embankment about sixty 

 years before ; but the drainage had been so badly executed, that what was 

 not covered with water was a perfect bog, over which it was impossible for 



