of each of which a large proportion was used in the family, and the rest sold in the town of Paisley; but the prices are not specified. The second premium for the second district was awarded to Mr John Gow, tenant in Portnellan, in the county of Dunbarton. The number of cows was 12, all of the Ayrshire breed; and the produce was sold in the state of butter and butter-milk. The returns are declared to have been at the rate of L. 10 per cow, exclusive of butter and milk used in the family, and milk employed in rearing 3 calves. This was for the year ending 1st December 1822. In none of these communications is the expence of food and management stated, or the interest on the capital employed, or the additional allowance required for supporting the stock; so that the nett profits per cow cannot be ascertained. It does not appear that the thermometer was used in any of these dairies. IN RECLAIMING DRIFT OR BLOWING SAND, AND CONVERTING THE LAND INTO USEFUL PERMANENT PASTURE, Made by ALEXANDER N. MACLEOD, Esq. of Harris on, his Estate of Harris, in 1819 and 1820. WE have viewed the improvements carried on upon the farm of Nisabost, in the parish of Harris, and county of Inverness, by Alexander N. Macleod, Esq. of Harris, who has completely succeeded in reclaiming and bringing into useful permanent pasture above 100 Scotch acres of useless blowing sand, by planting in it Arundo arenaria, well known in the Hebrides by the name of Bent Grass, and also by sowing rape-seed on it in a small proportion. The rape-seed requiring to be covered with sea-weed, or some other manure, immediately after sowing, is not considered so beneficial as the grass, as this requires no manure, or any other cultivation or top-dressing whatever, after being properly planted. The operations commenced upon the above farm in the month of September 1819, by cutting the Arundo arenaria, or bent-grass, about two inches below the surface, with a small thin-edged spade, with a short handle, which a man can use in his right hand, at the same time taking hold of the grass in his left; other persons carrying it to the blowing-sand to be planted in a bole or rather a cut. made in the sand, about 8 or 9 inches deep (and deeper where the sand is very open and much exposed), by a large narrow-pointed spade. A handful of Arundo arenaria, or bent-grass, was put into each of these cuts, which were about 12 inches distant, more or less, according to the exposure of the situation. When properly fixed in the blowing sand, the roots begin to grow, and spread under the surface, in the course of a month after planting. The Arundo arenaria, or bent-grass, may be cut without any material injury to the ground from which it is taken, as it will afterwards grow as well as if it were not cut at all. When Harris commenced the operations in reclaiming the tract of ground alluded to, it was altogether covered with blowing sand in winter and spring, and nearly so in summer. A great part of it consisted of high banks of sand, which did not produce grass or verdure of any kind whatever. The Arundo arenaria, or bent grass, is relished by cattle in summer, but it is of greater value, by preserving it on the ground for wintering cattle. It would be injudicious to cut it, because it will stand the winter better than any other grass, and is seldom covered with snow. Neither wind, rain, nor frost will destroy it; but the old grass naturally decays towards the latter end of spring and the beginning of summer, as the new crop grows. White and red clover will grow spontaneously among this in the course of a few years, provided it is well secured. It will produce seed in grass some instances, within twelve months after planting; but the seed does not, on high exposed situations, come to the maturity that seed requires for sowing. On this account, to propagate this grass from the root, is considered preferable to sowing. The Arundo arenaria or bent-grass operations, should not commence in any season earlier than about the 20th October, and should be given up about the beginning of March, as this planting thrives much better in the wet season. Harris enclosed with palings, and planted with this grass two considerable tracts on the farms of the Bowes; and Donald Stewart, factor for Harris, also planted with the foresaid grass, a great tract of blowing-sand on the farm of Luskintyre; but as no land-surveyor at present resides nearer than Inverness, which is about 150 miles (besides ferries) from these enclosures, the expence of bringing one that distance would be very considerable; therefore we cannot state the number of acres reclaimed from the blowing or drift-sand in these enclosures. How-ever, as we have Mr William Bald's plan and survey of the farm of Nisabost before us, we are enabled to state with accuracy, that above 100 acres, formerly of useless sand, are now in useful pasture; and from our own knowledge these eighteen years back, of the dangerous state of the foresaid tract of land to the adjoining ground, we really think that the experiment may be repeated with every prospect of success in similar situations *. A former report, substantially the same as the preceding, The following account of the plant, and of the sand referred to, in the preceding report, is taken from a communication made by a scientific gentleman who had long resided in Harris, and seems to have paid much attention to this interesting subject.-Ed.] The plant in question is a species of the genus Arundo, belonging to the natural order of Graminea, and to the third class of the Linnæan system. Its specific name is Arundo arenaria, and it is thus characterised: A. with a spiked panicle, valves of the calyx acute, corolla nearly as long as the calyx, thrice as long as the tuft of hairs; leaves involute, pungent. It is perennial; from 2 to 3 feet high; flowers in July. It is found in loose sand upon the seashore. The root is repent, very long, (often 20 feet). Culm stiff, with only one joint above the sand; greenish-yellow, tinged with red. Leaves very long, numerous, mostly radical, involute, acuminate and pungent. Panicle spiked, compact, linear, attenuated at each end, about 5 inches long. Calyx unequal, membranous, scabrous at the keel. Glumes of the corolla sub-membranous but stiff, nerved, roughish. Anthers large, purple. Very few of the seeds come to perfection in this country, although dated Harris, 8th November 1822, is signed by Donald Stewart, J. P., and Alexander Bethune, J. P.-Ed. * Mr Macgillivray, Assistant to Professor Jameson. |