630 Nummary View of the Prog?'ess of Gardening, 



as usual, with the same successful results ; and the Highland 

 Society, who hold their exhibitions in different parts of Scot- 

 land, had, this year, the one before mentioned in the month of 

 October, at Perth, which was remarkably well attended by the 

 practical farmers of that district, and by many proprietors from 

 different parts of Scotland, and also from England. The partial 

 failure of the potato crop, for three successive years, in many 

 parts of Scotland, and also in several districts both of England 

 and Ireland, has called forth various remedies ; the most 

 rational of which appears to us to be, that of burying the tubers 

 intended for sets in thin layers, mixed with soil, in a cool cellar, 

 or in thoroughly drained soil, in the open air, where they will 

 be kept plump, till wanted to be cut into sets. Taking up the 

 tubers before they are quite ripe, and exposing them, thinly 

 strewed on the ground, to the action of the atmosphere, will be 

 found a useful adjunct to this practice. After the tubers are 

 cut into sets, care should be taken never to let them lie together 

 in such quantities as to endanger their heating. The supposi- 

 tion of insects being a cause of ftiilure of the sets, and, also, that 

 the kinds and varieties in cultivation are worn out, appear to 

 us alike unsupported by facts. Insects seldom attack either 

 plants or animals till they are in a state of disease or decay ; 

 and there is no reason to suppose that healthy sets from a 

 healthy potato, of any given variety, or healthy cuttings of any 

 healthy variety of willow, poplar, or vine, will not produce 

 healthy plants to the end of time. 



The most curious piece of agricultural quackery which has 

 occurred during the past year is, the success which has attended 

 the sale of the seed of the variety of borecole called the cow 

 cabbage, which has been brought forward under the highly 

 sounding name of the Waterloo Caesarean evergreen cow 

 cabbage. (Seep. 441.) 



In agricultural science, the only point that we can recollect 

 worthy of notice, that has occurred during the past year, is the 

 advancement of the principle, by the American agricultural 

 writer, Mr. Rufifin, that no soil whatever will continue fertile, 

 for any length of time, that does not contain calcareous matter. 

 This, we believe, was never distinctly stated as a principle by 

 Kirwan, Chaptal, Davy, or any other European chemist or 

 agriculturist. We refer to the review of Mr. RuflSn's book, 

 in p. 156.; and those who wish to peruse his work entire will 

 find it copied in vols. viii. and ix. of the British Farmer's 

 Magazine^ where it is given as a series of original communica- 

 tions to that periodical 1 New agricultural machines are every 

 year coming into notice, and others every year falling into 

 disuse. Such, we may readily anticipate, will be the fate of the 

 mill for chopping turf, noticed in a future page, which affords a 



