628 Summary Ftew of tlie Progress of Gardenings 



The observations on the subject of agricultural improvements, 

 by Mr. Shaw Le Fevre, quoted in a future page, under General 

 Notices, are remarkable for taking a new and masterly view of 

 what is called agricultural distress, and showing that the only 

 permanent remedy for that distress must be found among the 

 farmers themselves. The employment of steam in agriculture 

 seems to be no longer a chimera, as it was thought to be at the 

 time when we first mentioned the subject in our Third Volume. 

 We refer to the article " Ploughing by Steam," p. 488. ; and to 

 various subsequent paragraphs on the subject in this Volume. 

 The editor of the Scotsman truly observes that, " if even half 

 the advantages of the steam plough are realised, some millions 

 of acres of bog in Scotland will be reclaimed, and the arable sur- 

 face of that country doubled ;" and we have seen in p. 489. that 

 about 3,000,000 of acres would be added to the arable surface 

 of Ireland." 



The important uses of the Deanston subsoil plough (see 

 p. 1308. fig. 1 187. of the First Additional Supplement to our En- 

 cyclopedia of Agriculture, cannot be too strongly impressed on 

 the minds of gardeners as well as farmers; because loosening 

 the subsoil, without bringing it to the surface, is fully as important 

 to gardeners, especially in arboriculture, as it is to farmers in 

 agriculture.* 



stationed in every quarter of the country, that any useful discovery, in hus- 

 bandrj' or the kindred arts, will find its way from Maidenkirk to John 

 o' Groat's, in half as many months as it would have required years at the end 

 of the American war. It is a striking fact, in illustration of the want of a great 

 institution of this kind in the south, that every year new inventions applicable 

 to agriculture are sent from various parts of England to the Highland So- 

 ciety, as the best means of bringing their merits into notice. If Mr. Handley's 

 sentiments are shared by his countrymen generally, the want may, perhaps, 

 soon be supplied ; and, if the attempt is made, there is one piece of counsel 

 we would tender to the parties concerned in it : it is, to follow the example of 

 the Highland Society, in carefully excluding, not only all political topics, but 

 all theoretical questions upon which a division of opinion exists. Had the 

 Highland Society engaged in discussions about the wisdom of the corn laws, 

 or the propriety of abolishing the malt tax, it would soon have made one 

 half of the people its enemies, and its utility would have been at an end. 

 The improvement of agriculture, as an art, presents an ample field for the 

 employment of its funds, and to this it wisely devotes itself." {Scotsman, 

 Oct. 12. 1836.) 



* To show how well the use of the Deanston plough is understood by 

 Mr. Shaw Le Fevre, we quote his own words : — " Smith's subsoil plough is 

 a necessary accompaniment to draining ; and, when that is done effectively, it 

 seems calculated to render the most sterile and unproductive soil fertile and 

 profitable. There is no difficulty more fatal to the practical farmer than that 

 of cultivating a thin shallow soil with a stiff retentive subsoil. Whatever pains 

 may be taken with the tillage of the former, however expensive the dressing 

 which may be used in its cultivation, the nature of the subsoil will always 

 counteract its beneficial effects. Many persons have endeavoured, by trench- 

 in o', to obviate this difficulty ; but, where the subsoil is of that sterile nature 

 which requires exposure to the atmosphere for a long period to make it 

 productive, few fanners have been found bold enough to repeat the experi- 



