Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 627 



relying on the opinion expressed by Mr. Smith of Deanston, a high authority 

 on the subject. Mr. Smith had stated in his book [reviewed in Vol. IX. 

 p. 448.], that drains made of stones broken small enough were better than 

 tile drains. Now, he would beg to ask the noble marquess, whether in those 

 drains which he had described as having been choked, the stones were broken 

 small enough. 



" The Marquess of Tweeddale replied that the practice of draining by means of 

 tiles was not known when Mr. Smith wrote his book. He admitted that he 

 had not read Mr. Smith's book, but judged of it from what he had seen in 

 agricultural publications. 



" Major Cumming Bruce repeated the question — ' Is a drain, say of 30 in. 

 depth, of stones broken small enough, sufficient for carrying oft' the water?' 



" The marquess, in reply, said that every drain on his estate which choked 

 was built of stones as nearly of the same size as possible, and he believed it 

 would be as profitable to throw the money into the sea, as to lay it out on 

 stone drains. 



" Mr. Ainslie of St. Colme said that Mr. Smith of Deanston uniformly 

 employed stones, and he knew it from personal communication with Mr. 

 Smith, as well as from his own experience, that in certain soils tiles are quite 

 insufficient, and cannot be used. This is particularly the case with sandy or 

 moorish soils, such as those on which Major Cumming Bruce is now em- 

 ploying them. On clay soils tiles may be used with more advantage than 

 stones." (Inverness Courier. Oct. 5. 1839.) 



The advantages which tile drains have over stone drains, in all loamy soils 

 at least, if not in all soils whatever, in our opinion are two ; and these render 

 tile draining so decidedly preferable for every kind of garden and pleasure- 

 ground purpose, that, when it is fully known to gardeners, we are persuaded 

 that no other mode will be used by them. First, if the semicylindrical tile 

 is either laid on a flat tile, or on a semicylindrical tile turned upside down, 

 the drain or tunnel so formed will never choke up ; and, secondly, if, after the 

 tiles are laid, they are covered either with sand, fine gravel, or surface soil 

 (not subsoil), this covering serves as a filter, and prevents either fine matter 

 that would choke up the drain, or fluid matter that might serve as liquid 

 manure to the plants, from entering it. For draining parks, pleasure-grounds, 

 walks, and approach roads of every kind, no mode of draining hitherto devised 

 is so truly scientific or so durable ; and we may add that though the cost in 

 some cases will be more in the first instance, yet from the great durability of 

 such drains, they will in every case be found cheaper in the long run. In 

 some walks now laying out under our direction in Derbyshire, this kind of 

 drain has been used, though in a stone country ; the experience of practical 

 men having already determined it to be preferable to the old mode by broken 

 stones. Three fourths of the arable lands of England would require to be 

 drained in this manner; and should any circumstance occur to oblige the 

 English country gentlemen to make the most of their estates, this will be one 

 of the first steps taken to improve them. 



A Mallet, with a Hoe attached on the one Side, and a Pick on the other, the 

 invention of Mr. John Gray, gardener to W. F. Campbell, Esq., M.P., Islay, 

 received the Society's silver medal, and will doubtless be a useful implement 

 in certain soils and situations : in hoeing potatoes in coarse land, for example. 

 We should be much obliged to Mr. Gray for some notice of this implement, 

 as well as of the pump for liquid manure mentioned in the next paragraph ; 

 unless, indeed, the Highland Society intends to publish engravings and de- 

 scriptions of them in their Transactions. 



A wooden Pump for liquid Manure, also invented by Mr. Gray, will be a 

 valuable machine for the cottager, and we shall be most anxious to see such 

 an account of it as we can render available for the supplement which we 

 are now preparing to our Enci/clopcedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architec- 

 ture and Furniture. 



Plants of the Norway Maple, and of the true Highland Pine, were exhibited 



