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NOTICES OF AUTHORS, 



with numerous side branches, and with a root rather 

 large in comparison to the part above ground. 



Our author's mode of preparation of turfy peat- 

 moss soils for planting we think good, but conve- 

 niently applicable in heathy moss ground, only with 

 the assistance of the late Mr Finlayson's ingenious 

 device of the self-clearing plough. At every seven 

 feet of breadth, Mr Monteath excavates a deep rut, 

 by means of a plough with three coulters and two 

 mould-boards, — two of the coulters cutting, each, a 

 side of the rut, the other dividing it in the middle, 

 and the double mould-board turning out a furrow to 

 each side. He passes this plough twice along in 

 forming the rut, each time turning out from fom' to 

 six inches in depth, so that the whole depth of the 

 rut is about ten inches. These minor drains com- 

 municate with larger ones dug by the spade across 

 the field. The thrown up slices are then cut into 

 lengths of eighteen inches, and carefully dried, by 

 turning and by piling a few together, as openly as 

 possible, that the wind may blow through. A small 

 pile, about six in number, is then burnt upon the in- 

 tended site of each tree, if necessary, aided in the 

 combustion by ftu'ze or other fuel ; taking care, by 

 proper regidation of the quantity of fuel, or other- 

 wise, to prevent the combustion from proceeding too 



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