and of Rural Improvement generalliji during 1836. 629 



Another agricultural improvement, perhaps of equal im- 

 portance to the use of the subsoil plough, is the system of 

 thorough under-draining adopted in Scotland. This system 

 will be found described in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 

 vol. vi. p. 325. and 515.; and also, in a concise and masterly 

 manner, in Mr. Le Fevre's Report. To Mr. Smith of Deanston 

 is also due the invention of this improved mode of effectually 

 draining land ; and his plan will be found noticed in our Ninth 

 Volume, p. 448., and given at length in the First Additiotial Sup- 

 plemcnt to our Jincydopdedia of Agricidture, p. 1347. 



The greatest agricultural novelty of the past year is the culti- 

 vation of beet for the purpose of manufacturing sugar. We 

 refer to a paragraph on this subject in a future page ; and, also, 

 to an article in the British Farmer^ s Magazine for Oct. 1836 

 (voL X. p. 369.). We cannot conceive it possible that this 

 manufacture should answer in any country where there is a 

 trade in the sugar of tropical climates, subject to only a mode- 

 rate duty ; but more especially in this country, where, we should 

 think, there is not a sufficiency of solar light and heat to pro- 

 duce a maximum of sugar in any plant whatever. It is possible, 

 however, that we may be mistaken in this supposition, since it 

 is alleged that more sugar is produced from a given quantity of 

 beet-root grown in the temperate parts of France, than in that 

 grown in the warmer provinces of that country ; and since we 

 know that the cultivation of the beet, as a sugar plant, has been 

 tried in the Isle of France, and turned out far from satisfactory. 

 While this is passing through the press, we find that the French 

 have succeeded in procuring potash from beet, in the proportion 

 of one sixth part to that of the sugar which the root yields. 



The exhibitions of agricultural and horticultural produce, by 

 the seedsmen of Edinburgh, Stirling, and Perth, are continued, 



ment. Mr. Smith's most ingenious invention, by breaking the subsoil without 

 bringing it to the surface, I'enders it pervious both to air and water. The 

 same chemical changes which take place in a fallow, owing to its exposure to 

 the action of the wind and rain, are thus brought into operation in the 

 subsoil, whilst the surface soil is in the ordinary course of cropping; and 

 when, after a few years, by a greater depth of ploughing, the subsoil is 

 mixed with the upper soil, it is found to be so completely changed in its 

 nature as to be capable of producing every kind of corn. 



" The advantages of this system of husbandry are so apparent, that no 

 farmer will be at a loss to appreciate the merit of the invention. I believe it 

 to be quite as important an improvement in the management of clay lands as 

 the introduction of the turnip system has been with reference to light soils; 

 and, as the experiment has been tried for twelve years, and with uniform 

 success, I cannot but anticipate its ultimate adoption in those districts of 

 England where, from the cold retentive state of the soil, the greatest extent 

 of agricultm'al distress has hitherto prevailed, and where draining is essential 

 to preserve the soil in a state of cultivation," {he Fevre's Remarks on the 

 present State of Agriculture, Sec.) 



Vol. XII. — No. 81. 3 a 



