590 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



of the north bank of the Forth, rising high above the water, 

 and presenting many warm slopes and sheltered prominences 

 for houses and gardens; the ancient town of Culross, or the 

 various curious old places about it: suffice it to say, that the 

 greater part of the scenery that we passed through or saw, be- 

 tween Dollar and Stirling, was of surpassing beauty. The 

 agriculture was every where excellent, and some very handsome 

 new farm buildings in the Elizabethan style, with noble columnar 

 chimneys to the steam-engines, were being eretced between Kin- 

 cardine and Culross. The only drawback we recollect was in 

 the long rows of comfortless-looking cottages, without gardens 

 either before or behind, occupied by colliers. The windows were 

 in general of cast iron, and in most places fixed, so that there 

 could be no efficient ventilation within. 



Valley fields Lady Preston, is, we believe, the only seat in 

 Scotland where Mr. Iiepton was employed. He did not visit 

 the country himself, but sent, as we have heard the late Mr. 

 Nasmyth say, who was also employed there, his two sons. The 

 kitchen-garden is on a sloping bank, and exhibited at one time 

 a fine display of terraces, fruit trees, and ornamental borders ; 

 but the whole is now comparatively neglected, and some of the 

 terrace walls have actually fallen down. In the plantations are 

 some black Italian poplars, planted in 1803, which have attained 

 the height of 100 ft., with trunks 3 ft. in diameter; and there are 

 very large balsam poplars, some of them 60 ft. high. The white 

 poplar has also attained an incredible size; the soil being deep, 

 rich, and moist, and the situation sheltered. 



Valleyfield Cottage Garden, of which an account will be found 

 in our Volume for 1840, p. 402., is chiefly remarkable as having 

 been the scene of the experiments of Mr. George Drummond, 

 made with a view of bringing French pears into an early state of 

 bearing. These experiments were originally published in the 

 Horticultural Transactions, but they are given at length in the 

 volume of the Gardener's Magazine just referred to. They 

 deserve the attentive study of the scientific gardener, particularly 

 those which relate to the influence of water on the temperature 

 of soil. The result is, that all water to be applied to the roots 

 of plants ought to be exposed to the temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere in which they grow, for a sufficient length of time to attain 

 the same temperature. Hence the rule that every kitchen-garden 

 ought to have a large shallow basin in a central situation, where 

 the water being expanded in a thin stratum can be easily 

 heated by the rays of the sun. As the warmest layer will 

 always be on the surface, the water ought not to be drawn up 

 by means of a pump, which will raise it from the bottom and 

 colder part, but the watering-pot should be dipped into it. If 

 the water, instead of being conducted to the basin by pipes or 

 drains under ground, can be led to it in open gutters, or de- 



