THE CULTIVATOR. 
75 
2. Thirty sovereigns for the best geological and mineralogical re¬ 
port upon any coal district in Scotland, not already reported upon; 
and a gold or silver medal for a second best report, if found worthy 
of that distinction. 
3. Thirty sovereigns for the best improvements on the threshing 
machine. 
4. Ten sovereigns for the best essay on the inflammatory diseases 
of farm horses. 
5. Twenty sovereigns for the most satisfactory experiments in 
feeding farm-horses, on raw and on prepared food; and, 
6. Twenty sovereigns for like satisfactory and similar experiments 
in feeding other farm stock. 
7. Ten sovereigns for the best set of satisfactory experiments in 
feeding stock in close houses and open sheds. 
8. Ten sovereigns for the best and approved essay on pruning fo¬ 
rest trees. 
9. Ten sovereigns for an improved method of cleaning flax. 
10. Ten sovereigns for the best detailed and satisfactory descrip¬ 
tion, of a method of making hay, whether of meadow or artificial 
grasses, founded on personal experience, which has secured the crop 
under every circumstance of weather, in the shortest tune and most 
nutritious state. 
11. Two premiums of ten sovereigns each, one for the best essay 
on draining tile, and one for the best essay on tile draining. 
13. Twenty sovereigns for the best essay on the management of 
sheep, with a view to the improvement of the fleece; and a medal 
to the person who rears the most and best poultry. 
16. Twenty sovereigns for the best account of the insects which 
are injurious to cultivated plants. 
17. Ten sovereigns for the best essay on the most effectual me¬ 
thod of constructing reservoirs of water for agricultural purposes. 
The essays to be predicated upon actual experiments, and to be 
accompanied, when proper, by drawings or models. 
18. Gold medal for the result of the greatest number of experi¬ 
ments on different breeds of neat cattle, made with a view of ascer¬ 
taining whether there be any peculiarity of anatomical structure 
which indicates a constitution in such cattle, disposing to fatten early. 
20. A gold medal for similar experiments in regard to the High¬ 
land breed. 
21. Ten sovereigns for the best and approved account, founded on 
experience, of the most successful method of preserving potatoes in 
good condition, in their natural state, for a period of not less than 
ten months from the time of their being taken up. 
22. Ten sovereigns for the best account, founded on experiment, 
of flooding or irrigating, water meadows. 
23. Fifteen sovereigns for the best mode of eradicating ferns 
(brakes,) from pastures where the plough cannot be used. 
24. A medal for the best report on the management of the dairy. 
25. Honorary gold medal for the best account, founded on obser¬ 
vation, of any useful practice in rural or domestic economy, adopted 
in other countries, calculated to be useful in Great Britain. 
26. An honorary premium for the best account of any district in 
Scotland, with reference to the present state of husbandry, and the 
progress of rural and general improvement. 
The above constitute the first class of premiums. 
The second class of premiums are to be awarded for experiments 
and improvements in reclaiming waste lands, and rendering them 
productive. 
Class 3, are premiums on crops and culture;—on new plants 
adapted to field culture ;—experiments on feeding off turnips with 
sheep ;—for the heaviest Angus oats ;—and for ploughing competi¬ 
tions. About 70 sovereigns are to be awarded in this class of pre¬ 
miums. 
Class 4, relates to the improvement of pasture grounds. Premi¬ 
ums are offered for a report of the most successful management of 
pasture grounds, founded on practice—and for the greatest quantity 
of Italian rye-grass seed saved on a farm. Two premiums, 15 so¬ 
vereigns. 
Class 5, specifies 112 premiums, amounting in the aggregate, to 
650 sovereigns, or nearly $3,000, for improving the breeds of cattle, 
the breed of work-horses, the breed of sheep and the breed of swine. 
Class 6, 15 premiums, amounting to 45 sovereigns, for the best 
butter and cheese. 
Class 7, 10 premiums, of two sovereigns each, for the cleanest 
kept cottages; also, several premiums, to encourage, in the cotta¬ 
gers, the cultivation of bees. 
Class 8. Eight premiums to encourage the planting of timber trees, 
the saving of seeds of forest trees, and the introduction of new kinds 
from abroad. 
Class 9. A medal to the person who shall invent or improve any 
agricultural implement or machine, which, from its utility in saving 
labor or expense, simplicity or cheapness of construction, shall be 
deemed by the society worthy of public notice. 
Class 10, embraces 60 premiums, amounting in the aggregate, to 
450 sovereigns, for the best cattle, of different breeds, horses, sheep 
and swine, and on wool, to be exhibited at the general show of live 
stock, and agricultural meeting, at Perth, the current year—on the 
condition that the male animals shall be let to the neighboring farm¬ 
ers, at stipulated prices, with a view to improve the farm stock of 
the country. 
Fifty sovereigns are also to be awarded for extra stock, implements, 
roots and seeds. 
These premiums, it will be perceived, have in view, the permanent 
and substantial improvement of the country; and they cannot fail to 
call into action the industry, talents and enterprise of the nation. 
Note well —Premiums are not awarded to the largest or fattest ani¬ 
mals, but to those which appear the most profitable to propagate 
from—to feed, or clip—those which are intrinsically best. 
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
It is a notorious fact, that many districts of our country, that were 
originally fertile, have materially deteriorated, and have ceased to 
yield then - wonted return to the husbandman; that large sections, 
| which formerly produced the finest wheat, have ceased to yield it, or 
to yieldit butin diminished quantity, and of inferior quality. We turn 
' to Maryland, Virginia, New-England, and many parts of our own 
(state, for evidence of the first position, and to West Vermont, and 
some of our northern counties, and the valley of the Mohawk, for 
ample proof of the latter. This poverty of the soil, and its failure 
to yield its accustomed increase, has resulted wholly from bad farm¬ 
ing—from ignorance, in the cultivator, of the immutable laws of na¬ 
ture, upon the observance of which agriculture can alone long pros¬ 
per. It is equally apparent, that unless a change takes place in 
their management, these lands will continue to deteriorate, and their 
produce to decrease. How then can the evil be arrested, the lands 
restored to their wonted fertility, and the inhabitants rendered thrif¬ 
ty and independent 1 That this can be done, is fully demonstrated 
by the experience of the last thirty years in our own country. Dut¬ 
chess, thirty years ago, began to reform her husbandry, under the 
j guidance of intelligent men, and we have seen that the products and 
value of her lands have increased four fold in consequence of these im¬ 
provements—and every class of her population have prospered with 
her farmers. Other districts, anti individuals, in every section of the 
state, are following in the good work. But we are about to show 
i the progress of agricultural improvement in Great Britain—to con¬ 
trast the present with the former condition of her husbandry—and 
to point out the proirfinent causes of her improvements, hi the hope, 
that the facts we shall detail will be both interesting and profitable 
to our countrymen. We have abstracted these facts from a review, 
in the Edinburgh Review, for January, of some recent British agri¬ 
cultural publications. 
The first evidence of agricultural improvement in Great Britain, 
which we shall cite, is afforded by the facts, that during the last half 
century, her population has considerably more than doubled,—that 
this population live far better now than they did formerly—and that 
they are entirely subsisted on the products of British agriculture, the 
importations of provisions during the four last years having been vir¬ 
tually nothing. 
The population of England mcreased in the half century from 
about seven to fifteen millions, and that of Scotland in nearly the 
same ratio. In 1760, and subsequently, most of the population sub¬ 
sisted on coarse grain, with little or no meat. Thirty years ago 
“small farmers, agricultural laborers and those employed in the 
mines, almost invariably used barley.” “ At the end of the Ameri- 
[ can war, no wheaten bread was to be seen in the farm houses, coun¬ 
try villages and minor towns of Scotland, and but little even in larger 
towns. Oat cakes and barley bannocks were there universally made 
use of.” Now, every where, wheaten bread is said to be generally 
eaten. In 1763, the slaughter of bullocks, and the supply of the 
public markets, was a thing wholly unknown even in Glasgow, which 
i had then a population of nearly 30,000. All now consume butchers’ 
1 meat. “ Hence,” says the reviewer, “ it appears, that the exten- 
