same day. Crop 12 tons 24 lb. per English

acre.

No. 9.-July 28.-Sowed 2 drills of the same length and breadth of turnips without manure. Crop 9 tons 10 cwt. 16 lb. per English acre.

No. 10.-July 28.-Sowed 12 drills of the same length and breadth, with 24 cart-loads of moss, which was twice turned, but did not heat. Crop 11 tons 2 cwt. 2 qrs. 24 lb. per English acre.

These nine experiments, from No. 2. to No. 10., were all tried in the same field, in which 14 acres were sown, dunged with farm-yard manure, at the rate of 5 tons to the acre. Crop 20 tons 3 cwt. 24 lb. per English acre.

Experiments in a field of 10 statute acres at Crosshill, a light dry soil.

No. 11.-July 18.-Sowed 6 drills upon land preparing for turnips, 2 feet wide by 245 yards long, with 16 stones of salt. Crop 9 tons 18 cwt. 3 qrs 4. lb. per English acre.

No. 12.-July 18.-Sowed 6 drills 24 feet by 235 yards, with 13 stones of salt. Crop 9 tons 12

cwt. 2 qrs. 4 lb. per English acre.

No. 13.-July 18.-Sowed 6 drills, 24 feet by 160 yards, with 9 stones of salt. Crop 10 tons 16 cwt. 8 lb. per acre.

No. 14.-July 18.-Sowed 6 drills, 2 feet wide by 140 yards long, with 7 stones of salt. Crop 9 tons 10 cwt. 19 lb. per English acre.

No. 15.-July 15.-Sowed 6 drills, 2 feet wide

and 110 yards long, with 5 stones of salt. Crop 9 tons 8 cwt. 2 qrs. 14 lb. per English acre.

No. 16-July 18.-Sowed 6 drills, 2 feet wide and 90 yards long, with 4 stones salt. Crop 9 tons

7 cwt. 3 qrs. 8 lb. per English acre.

No. 17.-July 18.-Sowed 6 drills, 2 feet wide and 90 yards long, without any manure. Crop 9 tons 1 cwt. 2 qrs.

Nine English statute acres of the same field, manured with farm-yard dung, 5 tons per acre, have produced at the rate of 25 tons 9 cwt. 3 qrs. 28 lb. per acre.

The result of the above experiments with salt as a manure for turnips, which were weighed this day, 13th November, shews that it has been attended with little or no benefit to the crop; and, of course, it will be discontinued in future.

Flax.

Four stones of salt, mixed with the same weight. of linseed, produced a great crop; which is attributed to the season, as other crops in the neighbourhood were equally good without salt.

Pasture.

Sowed a quarter of an acre of one year old ley, and limed the same quantity of ground with 38 Winchester bushels of shell-lime. The salt and the lime seem to have greatly and equally improved

the pasture; the rest of the field having got no top dressing of any kind.

Live Stock.

Fourteen score of sheep, fed upon turnip last spring, got 2 stones of hay per day, with 4 lb. of salt melted in water, and sprinkled upon it. We had no death. The loss formerly used to be from one to two score.

We give our work-horses about 2 ounces per day each, and feeding pigs about an ounce each. Our cows in winter get 2 ounces each per day in steamed meat. The stock of every kind appear to thrive better since they got salt.

We have been in the practice of giving salt to our horses and pigs before we got the rock-salt; and, in stacking our hay, have, for many years, sprinkled salt upon it, in the proportion of about a stone to the 100 stone of hay (24 lb.), which helps to preserve it, and makes it better relished by the stock. We have continued the same proportion in using the rock-salt.

Garden Crops.

Salt has been used for raising onions upon beds a yard wide, at the rate of 3 ounces to the yard. The ground got no other manure, but was dunged and cropped with celery the preceding year. Salt was tried upon the same bed at the rate of a quart to the yard. Part of the same bed was tried without

any manure. The salt raised the best onions; and they were better where there was no manure than with soot.

Salt has been tried with cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage, also at the rate of 3 ounces to the square yard, without any other manure, and has raised good crops and clean at the roots, which proves its efficacy in killing the worms. The same advantage was formerly obtained by using hot lime.

The experiments on the farm were conducted by the overseer or bailiff, W. Halliday; and in the garden by the gardener, R. Ross. They have, in my opinion, been made with great care, and are fairly reported.

MOUNT-ANNAN, 13th Nov. 1819.

ALEX. DIROM.

ESSAY

ON THE

THEORY OF IRRIGATION *.

By Mr JAMES LINDSAY, Land-Surveyor at Murdiestown, Lanarkshire.

IN whatever light we consider irrigation, it must appear one of the greatest improvements in agriculture. If immediate gain be the object, it produces heavy crops of hay annually, besides rich pasture for cattle, in spring and in autumn, when, from its scarcity, this kind of food is rendered more valuable. If the improvement of land in tillage be the object, it is a source of manure; water being of itself sufficient to support, as well as communicate fertility, to those lands to which it is skilfully applied, without the aid of any other manure; so that the whole dung made from the hay-crop may be applied to other land in tillage.

* It has been thought expedient to omit some passages in this Essay, where the author was too diffuse: but care has been taken that the facts and reasoning should not be affected. -ED.