682 Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 



from brewhouses and distilleries, which is purchased at a cheap rate, and 

 mixed up with salt, which produces intolerable thirst ; and, water being given 

 ad libitum, this is found to increase prodigiously the quantity of milk : but a 

 more unwholesome innutritions article of food could scarcely have been sub- 

 stituted for natural pasture. After the process of malting, little more than 

 the husk remains, with a small portion of volatile spirit, which happily keeps 

 the animal in a half-slumbering state of semi-intoxication. In the course of a 

 few months, the liver enlarges to an enormous size, scirrhosity ensues, the 

 blood-vessels and other organs of the body become involved in the general 

 wreck, and the production of milk is at an end. Thus, at the end of twelve 

 months, the cow is no longer of any service to her keeper. She is now turned 

 over to the slaughter-house, and, from the hands of the butcher, to regale the 

 appetites of the ' highly-favoured inhabitants of London.'" (^Charles Whitlaw, 

 in a Letter to Sir John Sinclair, Bart.) 



SCOTLAND. 



Pittosporum Tobira, and Acacia armata have stood the two last winters at 

 Airthrey Castle, near Stirling, the seat of the Right Hon, Lord Abercromby, 

 as standards, without the slightest protection. The first is now between 4 ft. 

 and 5 ft. high, and the second nearly 4 ft. high. The common myrtle, planted 

 against the house of Mr. Cathie, the gardener, has attained the height of 7^ ft. : 

 it has stood out several years with a very slight protection during severe frost, 

 and flowers freely every year. There are a great many fine trees and shrubs 

 at Airthrey, the dimensions of all of which we have received in a very ample 

 Return Paper kindly prepared for us by Mr. Cathie, and of which due use will 

 be made in the Arboretum Bntannicum. 



Tlireshing-Machines driven by Steam are increasing in use rapidly among the 

 farmeries in Fifeshire. No fewer than thirty have been lately erected, a de- 

 cided proof of the increasing intelligence and wealth of the farmers. The next 

 step will be to steam ploughs, or, at all events, to steam cultivators (we mean 

 to such instruments as Finlayson's harrow), and, probably, to steam reaping- 

 machines. — Cond. 



IRELAND. 



Pakenham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Longford, in the county of West- 

 meath, I was much pleased with; and I was glad to hear from the very intel- 

 ligent gardener there, Mr. George, that he had begun a correspondence with 

 your Magazine. Among other improvements at Pakenham, which have been 

 suspended by the lamented death of the late earl, was the formation of a 

 quercetum, if 1 may coin such a word, containing all the species of hardy oaks 

 which could be procured. I regret to say, however, that, owing to the depre- 

 dations of rabbits, and other causes, they are not succeeding so well as could 

 be wished. A few of them appeared to me to be incorrectly named, probably 

 having only the names sent with them from a nursery, which we know are 

 often very far from correct. 



Among the pines is a most beautiful specimen of ^^bies Clanbrasihajzff, cer- 

 tainly the finest I ever saw. Many other rare trees and shrubs are scattered 

 through the pleasure-grounds : I recollect, particularly, a thriving plant of 

 J'rbutiis [Pernetti«] mucronata, with ripe fruit. 



Many improvements have been made within the last few years, under Mr. 

 George's directions ; amongst which may be named the converting of a useless 

 swamp into an American garden. In this, magnolias, and many other Ame- 

 rican trees and shrubs, grow most luxuriantly; but there appears something in 

 the peat of that neighbourhood uncongenial to azaleas, &c. Of these there 

 is a fine collection ; but, although only two or three years planted, they are 

 already getting scrubby and overgrown with lichens. 



Mr. George informed me that, about two years since, he planted out above 

 a hundred acacias, principally A. dealbata, and A. verticillata, but that only two 

 of the number survived the winter, or, at least, esciped being killed to the 



