ments. For a pretty long period, the roads have had a firm and proper bottoming, but we have only of late enjoyed the pleasures of the smooth surface; and these in conjunction, (for they must go hand in hand,) seem to produce what may justly be termed the perfection of road-making.

Yet it is not a little surprising to observe by how slow degrees even the most useful improvements are brought about. As a proof of this, it may be mentioned that, as far back as the year 1811, I had occasion to suggest the use of small metal in a specification for a piece of road in Kincardineshire ; and in 1818, for another road in the county of Edinburgh; but even then the public mind was not prepared for it, and the plan was considered by much too expensive. It fortunately happened, however, that Lord Melville, in travelling through Somersetshire, saw the beneficial advantages of this system exemplified upon various roads in that district, under the direction of Mr Macadam; and it is perhaps not very generally known, that it was under his Lordship's influence that this system came to be introduced, in so short a period. So remarkably has the taste for smooth roads increased of late, that some of "the principal streets of London, are now laid with small stones, in Mr Macadam's manner, instead of the usual paved causeway.

15th, One of the many advantages of a smooth carriage-way in a city, is the comparative state of quiet which accompanies it; an object so paramount with the Dutch, that they seldom use wheels to their

carriages in the streets of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Upon noticing this singular custom to an eminent merchant of the former place, especially with regard to their hackney coach-sledges, he observed, among other things, that the noisy streets of England were quite intolerable to a Hollander.

In regard to laying the streets of a populous town with small stones, both the dust of summer, and the dirt of winter, it must be admitted, will prove great objections. As the means, therefore, of procuring the comforts of a smooth and durable city-road, at a comparatively small expence, it is proposed to lay stone-railways similar to those described under note 14th, in the principal streets of all populous towns, and also in such villages as happen to be situate upon the track of the principal highways throughout the kingdom.

In the present state of the public roads, the traveller passes smoothly along, till he reaches a city or village, when all at once he is hurled upon a rough and jolting road, distressing to himself, and annoying to the inhabitants of the respective places. To remedy the evils of the present system, in this respect, the use of causeway-tracks of aisler or dressed stones is suggested, on which the carriage-wheels might glide smoothly along. In point of economy, the causeway-rails would be greatly preferable to small broken stones, as the tracks may be conceived to be one uniform stratum, laid at an expence much less than a similar depth of broken stones.

EXPERIMENTS

WITH

SALT,

AS A MANURE, AND IN THE FEEDING OF
LIVE-STOCK.

I. Report by Mr ANDREW ROBERTSON, Farmer at Almond Myrehead, near Linlithgow; transmitted through the Right Honourable Sir JOHN SINCLAIR, Bart.

Sect. 1.-As a Manure.

I deferred sending an account of my experiments with Salt, till they were completed, and the result fully ascertained, that I might neither deceive myself, nor be the means of misleading others. I have paid all the attention in my power to be as correct as possible.

This being a very dry season was rather against the trials; a wet season would probably have answered better; but the real state of this year's experiments is as follows.

Experiment, No. 1.-1st November 1818.Sowed 28 lb. of marine salt on 3 falls of sandy land,

together with wheat, and ploughed both down. This is at the rate of 26 bushels per Scotch acre. The wheat for some weeks after brairding or appearing above ground, did not look so well as the rest of the field around it; I think owing to the salt and the wheat coming into immediate contact. The crop

was reaped on the 27th of August 1819, and produced at the rate of about 3 firlots per acre more than the rest around it. The whole field was much hurt by the mildew, and even where the salt was sown, it was not free from it, though not half so much injured as the rest. I think that it would have been better to have ploughed down the wheat, and harrowed in the salt, instead of sowing it with the wheat.*

Experiment, No. 2.-30th March 1819.-Sowed 21 lb. of rock-salt, or at the rate of 40 bushels per acre, on 1 falls of excellent young clover and rye-grass, intended for hay. In a few days after, the clover in a great measure disappeared, and although there are some plants remaining, it is far from being like the rest of the field around it. I think that this has been an over-dose, and that the salt ought to have been mixed with earth, and used as a top dressing. I am inclined to be of opinion, from this experiment, that salt sown at this rate, or upwards, may be of great use to clean foul land from weeds, provided the salt is sown in time to let the war between it and the weeds be over, so that the grain

* It is ascertained, that salt may be sown with oat seed, this grain being covered with a husk; but it would seem that the seed of wheat is too tender to be mixed with salt.

may enter into a fertile field, and get peaceable possession.

Experiment, No. 3.-30th March 1819.--Sowed 7 acres of land with oats. One end of the ridges was of a sandy quality; the other half of the length of the ridges was more of a gravelly nature. The whole was half harrowed; then 25 bushels of rocksalt were sown on four ridges, or 146 falls, in the middle of the field; this was at the rate of 28 bushels per Scotch acre.

Experiment, No. 4.--Then sowed 9 lb. additional, on two falls at the end of one of the above four ridges, to make it at the rate of 40 bushels per acre.

Experiment, No. 5.--Sowed also 9 lb. on 4 falls at the end of another of the said four ridges, to make it at the rate of 34 bushels per acre. The salt was suffered to remain for three or four days, that it might be melted. It happened to get a gentle shower of rain in the interval; I then harrowed thoroughly the whole land that had been salted. The salt had

an equal effect on both ends of the ridges. There was not any great difference between Nos. 3, 4, and 5. At any rate, the largest quantity did not seem to have done any harm. The first alteration we observed was, that not one-third part of skellochs or wild mustard were to be found on the four salted ridges as on the rest contiguous. When the oats appeared, the salted oats were observed to be a few days earlier, and more close on the ground. When cut down (23d August), the salted oats were more evenly ripened and whiter in the colour, and the stubbles