and of Rural Improvement generally^ during 1836. 631 



fine example of the application of main force, instead of skill, in 

 the improvement of agriculture. A siphon to facilitate the 

 milking of cows has been patronised by the Society of Arts, 

 and may, probably, lead to some useful purpose. At the 

 meeting of the Highland Society of Scotland, at their great 

 agricultural show, held at Perth, on October 7., a trial was 

 made of two reaping machines ; the one the invention of 

 Mr. Smith of Deanston, and the other of our correspondent 

 Mr. Bell. Mr. Bell's machine clips, by means of fourteen pairs 

 of scissors (see the engravings and description of this machine 

 in Vol. VI. p. 296.) ; and Mr. Smith's cuts, or mows, by means 

 of a circular plate with a sharp edge. (See the description and 

 engraving of this machine in our Encyclopedia of Agricidtnre, 

 2d edit. p. 422,) Both these machines seem to answer ; but which 

 is the most likely to come into general use, does not appear 

 from the report of their trial. A gentleman who was present, 

 however, M. Rosenthal of Vienna, now in London, informs us 

 that Mr. Bell's machine did decidedly the most, and the best, 

 work. (See the Constitutional^ and Perthshire Agrictdtural and 

 General Advertiser, for Oct. 8.) An economical mode of forming 

 furrow-drains, and of making draining tiles of peat, will be 

 found in the Quarterly Journal of Agricidiure for September 

 last (vol. vii. p. 244. and 256.). 



Rural Architecture is making considerable progress in every 

 part of the country ; and the Highland Society of Scotland have 

 lately adopted an admirable mode of improving both cottage ar- 

 chitecture and cottage gardening ; viz. that of offering premiums 

 for the neatest cottages and the best kept gardens ; and limiting 

 the competition to particular districts, and even, in some instances, 

 to particular parishes. This mode of making the competition 

 for premiums local, deserves the particular attention of all so- 

 cieties the object of which is rural improvement ; and it shows 

 the much greater advantages to be derived from provincial 

 societies of every kind, than from central societies alone, how- 

 ever wealthy and powerful the latter may be. This is admirably 

 illustrated both in the case of the provincial horticultural societies, 

 and in that of the Highland Society. What effort of the London 

 Horticultural Society, for example, could have produced the 

 results which we see in Cornwall, Jersey, Yorkshire, and a 

 hundred other places more or less remote from the metropolis? 

 The Highland Society, for several years, had offered premiums 

 for improvements in cottages ; but, as the competition extended 

 to the whole of Scotland, it produced no result; for a competitor 

 in those places where cottage-building was in a backward state, 

 though he might produce a far better cottage than any of those 

 in his vicinity, might yet find his cottage as far behind those in 

 another district, as it was in advance of those around it. A great 



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