220 Cleghorn'S System of Agriculture. 



of management, in rural affairs, and even go so far as to call in to their aid 

 some lackadaisical peripatetics from the Highland Society to bolster up 

 the monstrous [absurdity, who sapiently and profoundly agree that the 

 " Allanton method" is to supersede all other modes of "economical 

 planting," and that it is to produce a new era in " ornamental planting." 

 Shades of Pope and Shenstone! could ye but for once " revisit the 

 glimpses" either of the sun or " moon," how would your beatified spirits 

 mourn ! — ye who, 



" Looking through Nature up to Nature's God," 



employing nature's simple instruments, realised beauties which could only 

 previously exist in the " mind's eye " of such heaven-born souls, — how 

 would ye mourn (being ignorant of the " Allanton method," as in good 

 truth ye needs must), — how would ye mourn to find your own sylvan 

 scenes — your own poetic fairy lands — neglected, despised, and depicted 

 but as " possessing things rank and gross in nature merely." Even the 

 magnificent and hallowed conceptions of England's own blind bard must 

 vanish into " airy nothing" before the Ithuriel touch of these magical 

 arborists. But enough, and more than enough, of this matter. 



We will close these observations with a short extract from the chapter 

 on pruning, to show our fellow-labourer Mr. Howden,and others, that our 

 opinions respecting the management of the pine tribe are not singular. 

 The author says : — 



" I am decidedly averse to pruning any of the fir tribe, except decayed 

 branches, to prevent useless knots in the timber. It is much better to 

 leave all firs to nature, as their sap-vessels are larger than those of hard-wood 

 trees, and they consequently bleed more when wounded ; besides, it makes 

 a ridiculous and unsightly appearance to prune a parcel of fine larch and 

 other firs, as I have frequently seen them, three parts of the way to the 

 top. The branches of the larch are weak and tender when planted in 

 mass, and therefore do not cause large knots in the timber ; in no case, 

 therefore, should they be touched. The silver fir, the next in value, and 

 in every way one of the noblest of the pine tribe, I have seen pruned, and 

 bleeding from the numerous wounds which the ignorant and injudicious 

 hand had inflicted on it. — Thin out your firs regularly ; but, so far as re- 

 gards pruning, hang up your saw, and lock up your pruning-knife, Regidar 

 thinning is more to be recommended for all trees than too liberal an application 

 of the saw or pruning-knife •." — J. JElles. Palace Gardens, Armagh, Jan. 5. 

 1831. 



Cleghorn, James, Esq., an Accountant in Edinburgh, late Editor of the 

 " Farmer's Magazine :" System of Agriculture, from the " Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica." 4to, pp. 106, 7th edit., 13 quarto plates. Edinburgh, 

 1831, Adam Black. 



We have great pleasure in noticing this work, written and published by 

 highly esteemed friends. It may be considered as a specimen of the new 

 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, now publishing by Mr. Black, 

 which is unquestionably far superior to the preceding one, in paper, print, 

 and engravings, as well as in matter. We regret chiefly one thing : viz. 

 that instead of engravings on plates separate from the text, and "which, 

 being troublesome to refer to, are generally not referred to at all, wood- 

 cuts in the body of the text have not been used. We should have preferred, 

 also, a systematic arrangement, somewhat in the style of the Encyclopedia 

 Metropolitana. A quarto encyclopaedia, of twenty or thirty volumes, in 

 which the subjects are systematically arranged, and all the engravings, 

 except those of maps, and a few views in which aerial perspective^ 

 essentially necessary, done on wood, is a desideratum in English literature, 

 which we trust will be supplied as soon as government reduces the tax on 

 paper. 



