508 Report of the Perth Agricultural Exhibition. 



sea. They were planted as nurses for oak, at the rate of about 

 3000 per acre ; upwards of 6000 have this year been cut, out 

 of which not more than 50 sound trees could be picked. Larch, 

 growing on the same soil, about sixty years old, had one in six 

 or eight which showed slight symptoms of decay ; but the tim- 

 ber, in general, was of excellent quality." (p. 41.) The atten- 

 tion of landed proprietors and foresters is directed, by Messrs. 

 Dickson and Turnbull, to the probability of the rot in larch 

 being produced to an alarming extent on land previously occu- 

 pied by Scotch pine ; a result which seems proved by the spe- 

 cimens exhibited by Mr. Gorrie and Mr. Young. (See, also, 

 VII. 374., and IX. 551.) 



Models of various kinds were exhibited : three ploughs, made 

 by ploughmen ; one of a moss-house, by a boy of sixteen years 

 of age, presented by Messrs. Drummond and Sons of Stirling; 

 a model of a hollow brick wall; portraits of prize cattle; a 

 machine or swoop (see Encyc. of Agr., §2729.) for conveying 

 hay from the small coil [haycock] to the rick hay turner (or, as 

 it would be called in England, the large haycock, the mode of 

 making hay in the two countries being quite different : see Encyc. 

 of Agr., § 5791.) ; machine for compressing peat, which will be 

 found in our First Additional Supplement to the Encyclopaedia of 

 Agriculture ; verge-cutters, horse-hoes, cheese-pressers ; models 

 of drains ; wedge-drain spades; cheeses; and, lastly, books. 

 The essays, the titles of which are given at the head of this 

 article, are unexceptionable, both in matter and style. 



We have been thus particular in giving the contents of this 

 tract, in order to show how easy it would be for seedsmen to 

 get up similar exhibitions in every county town. The object is 

 less to get new and strange articles, than to assemble together 

 such things as are already in the county or district, in order to 

 facilitate comparison, and equalise the knowledge of the exist- 

 ence of such things. This alone would lead to the examination 

 of the exhibitions of adjacent counties, and to the introduction 

 of articles from them ; and thus improvements of every kind 

 would be surely and rapidly propagated throughout the country. 

 We would direct the attention of agriculturists everywhere, and 

 more especially in England, to the great number of varieties of 

 wheat, barley, and oats exhibited at the agricultural museums of 

 Perth, Stirling, and Edinburgh, and to the superior excellence 

 of some of them. We would recommend trials to be made in 

 England of the Nepal wheat, the red-awned oat, the blood-red 

 wheat, the Mungoswells wheat, the Morocco barley, the Tangier 

 barley, and the chevalier barley. Nepal wheat sown in the Earl 

 of Mansfield's kitchen-garden at Kenwood, on July 11., was in 

 full bloom on Sept. 12., when we called there. Lord Mansfield 

 strongly recommends iupiuus polyphyllus as spring food for 

 sheep. 



