54 ON THE RECLAMATION 



second year the Eoyal North Lancashire Agricultural Society 

 held the trial of all kinds of implements on the farm. The 

 rotation of cropping may be stated as green crop, wheat, rye- 

 grass and clover, oats, then green crops again ; but in this part 

 of Lancashire the rotation depends altogether on the seasons, 

 which are so variable as to affect the state of the land, and 

 necessitate changes in the intended course of cropping. That 

 part of the reclaimed land embanked which has been lately 

 devoted to pasture has grassed satisfactorily. Flowers, straw- 

 berries, gooseberries, apples, &c., grow in the gardens, and indeed 

 almost everything that is grown on a cropping farm*nourishes on 

 this reclaimed land when enclosed from the sea. The land here 

 alluded to was mostly grassed over before being enclosed (being 

 nearly at the level of high-water of spring tides), and the fore- 

 going observations as to cropping must be considered as referring 

 to such enclosures, and not to low raw land from which the tide 

 has been early excluded." 



The Nifh. 



Low training-walls were constructed by Messrs D. & T. 

 Stevenson on the Nith for the improvement of the navigation, 

 which were completed in 1863. Part of the wall extended in 

 front of a bay of slob land belonging to the estate of Kirkconnell, 

 and I have a letter from A. Maxwell Witham, Esq., the pro- 

 prietor, in which he says : " The training-walls which you put in 

 the Kiver Nith have greatly improved the navigation." The 

 effects of these works on the foreshore of Kirkconnell, after an 

 experience of 10 years, Mr Witham describes as follows: " What 

 was formerly marsh has not been enclosed ; it remains as before. 



