54 Lota's Elements of practical Agriculture. 



in the boiler will require to be heated to 150°, and then there 

 might be some advantage in adopting a casing ; though this, in 

 general, will depend not so much on the absolute degree of heat 

 produced, either in the boiler or the house to be heated, as on 

 the relative difference between the temperature of the water in 

 the two legs of the siphon. 



Art. II. Elements of practical Agriculture ; comprehending the 

 Cultivation of Plants, the Husbandry of the Domestic Animals, and 

 the Economy of the Farm. By David Low, Esq., F.R.S.E., Pro- 

 fessor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh. Second 

 Edition. 8vo, pp. 719, and numerous Engravings. London. 



In this second edition of a work of universally acknowledged 

 merit, the author has embraced the opportunity of making " a 

 few amendments in minor points, and certain corrections in the 

 accounts given of the varieties or breeds of domestic animals." 



The following quotation ought to be instructive to English 

 proprietors : — 



" It has been objected to some of the calculations contained in this Work, 

 that the rate of labour assumed will not apply to a great part of England. 

 This objection is good in the case of various districts of very stiff aluminous or 

 aluraino-calcareous soils in the south-eastern counties of England, where more 

 than the labour of two horses may be required for ordinary tillage ; but it 

 certainly does not apply to the greater part of the land of this country. The 

 system of agriculture here explained, in so far as it regards the methods of 

 farm labour, has been long established in the north of England, and over all 

 the better districts of Scotland. In the county of Northumberland, where a 

 system of cultivation is pursued which may serve as a model to every part of 

 this kingdom, the stiffest soils are managed b}^ two-horse teams. While I must 

 admit, then, the exceptions which exist in the case of certain tracts of country, 

 as the London clay, the weald clay, and other very tenacious soils, I maintain 

 that the system of farm labour here described is capable of being reduced to 

 practice over nearly nine tenths of England : and to the whole of Ireland it is 

 applicable in its minutest details. The greatest obstacle to the progress of 

 agricultural improvement is the prejudice of habit. Throughout all England, 

 there is a multitude of agriculturists surpassed by none in the world for intel- 

 ligence and spirit ; and many things in the agriculture of the country are 

 deserving of the highest praise ; but it cannot be concealed, that, in the sim- 

 plifying and economising of labour, there is much to be learned and effected. 

 It is in this respect that the methods of English tillage, and especially in the 

 (southern counties, admit of the greatest improvement. By a more efficient 

 application of the means of labour, a wide field of beneficial improvement is 

 open over a great part of this rich and beautiful country; and one of the most 

 useful services that can be rendered to the farmers of many of the finest dis- 

 tricts of England is, to show them how the operations of the field can be more 

 cheaply performed. It is undeniable, that, in the parts of this kingdom which 

 are the least favoured by nature, the art of tillage has become more perfect by 

 being rendered more simple ; and the result is shown in the greater revenue 

 derived from land under all the disadvantages of a colder, moister, and more 

 changeable climate. The agriculturists in the south of England are surprised 

 at the high rents paid from the poorer soils in the northern parts of the king- 



