438 Lawson's Agriculturists Manual. 



Deakin, F.R.C.S.E., and Robert Marnock, Curator, &c., no- 

 ticed Vol. XI. p. 534., has reached its 12th number, from which 

 it may reasonably be concluded, that an improvement has taken 

 place in the engravings. It is no less astonishing than gratifying 

 to find, from the sale of so many similar periodicals, that there 

 is at present such a wonderful taste for plants and gardening in 

 every part of the country. 



Art. III. The Agriculturist's Manual ; being a Jamiliar Description 

 of the Agricultural Plants cultivated in Europe, including practical 

 Observations respecting those suited to the Climate of Great Britain; 

 and forming a Report of Latusons Agrictdtural Museum in Edin- 

 burgh. By Peter Lawson and Son, Seedsmen and Nurserymen to 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. 8vo, pp. 430. 

 Edinburgh, 1836. 95. 



This is a very interesting and, indeed, remarkable work ; and cannot fail 

 most materially to influence the character of agricultural improvement in 

 Scotland. Ever since that great era of amelioration in Scottish husbandry, 

 which commenced with naked fallows, and which was soon followed by the 

 introduction of the turnip husbandry, the attention of the Scottish farmer has 

 been directed much more to the improvement of the soil, implements, build- 

 ings, and other objects which constitute the means of cultivation, than to the 

 improvement of the things to be cultivated. Notwithstanding the favourable 

 reception that was given to the Farmer's Magazine, at the commencement of 

 the present century, conducted as it was by an eminent East Lothian farmer, 

 and read by almost all the farmers of Scotland, we question much if this 

 Manual would have been favourably received, either by the conductor of the 

 Magazine, or the farming public. This, indeed, seems the natural progress 

 of things ,• for, as the soil must be prepared before any seed whatever is sown 

 in it, so must it be prepared in a superior manner to fit it for the reception 

 of more highly artificial varieties. The time seems to have now arrived, when 

 the current of agricultural improvement in Scotland has set in, in the direction 

 of improving the breeds of the plants and animals in general cultivation j 

 we do not say that this has been hitherto neglected, but, merely, that, till 

 within these few years, it has not met with the attention that it deserves. 



The founder of this description of improvement, as far as respects plants, 

 may, perhaps, be considered as Stillingfleet, who was succeeded by Curtis, 

 and Sinclair on Grasses ; while, in regard to animals, the names of CuUey and 

 Bakewell stand preeminent. Among the more recent promoters of the 

 improvement of the breeds of plants in Scotland, may be mentioned Mr. 

 ShirrefFof Mungo's Wells, and Mr. Gorrie; and, after them, Messrs. Drummond 

 of Stirling, Messrs. Dickson and Turnbull of Perth, Professor Low, and the 

 authors of the work before us; which work may be considered as the result 

 of all that has been done on the subject up to the present time. If we are 

 wrong in the order in which we have placed these names, we shall be glad to 

 be corrected. 



In order to give our readers an idea of Messrs. Lawson's work, we think 

 we cannot do better than to quote the Preface : — 



" Feeling a sincere pleasure in promoting whatever appears to us to have a 

 tendency towards the diffusion of a taste for rural improvement, and in con- 

 tributing as far as in our power to give it a useful direction, we have been 

 induced to lay before the public a description of the various agricultural 

 plants cultivated in Europe, and of which specimens may be seen in our 

 collection. The spirited conduct of our friends, the Messrs. Drummond, who 



