also presented a tranflation of Dr. Bell's thefis, De Phyfiologia Plantarum, printed at Edinburgh. Though we do by no means approve of compofitions of this nature being inferted in the memoirs of literary focieties, as thefe are neceffarily uninterefting to ftrangers, and have a tendency to degenerate into fulfome panegyric; yet we muft do Dr. Currie the juftice to fay, that he here feems to have been much upon his guard in this refpect, and has executed the task that was impofed on him in a way that does him much honour. The thefis is a very good collection of fuch obfervations on the subject, as were known at the time when it was written; but it contains little that is new. We cannot help thinking the Society have, on this occafion, deviated fomewhat from the plan we imagined they had chalked out for themfelves, and have acted with rather lefs dignity than was becoming fo refpectable a body, by making themfelves the editors of tranflations of works already published; for the republication of a thefis can scarcely be claffed among original

works.

Of the voluntary Power which the Mind is able to exercife over bodily Senfation. By Thomas Barnes, D. D.

In this effay the Author adduces many examples to fhew, that by a vigorous exertion, the mind may fometimes be fo keenly engaged as not to have leisure to attend even to acute bodily fenfations; or if it does attend to them, may confider them as of fuch an inferior kind, as in fome measure to difregard them. Thus he accounts for the apathy of the Stoics, the heroism of the patriot, and other fimilar cafes. But, the fublimeft feelings which can govern the human heart,' he obferves, 6 are those infpired by religion; for religion carries the foul beyond itself, and centers all its strongest affections upon the Creator, and a better world. If these be properly, that is, habitually felt, they will be. moft friendly to that felf-poffeffion which braces the mind in all its best and most lafting energies. These feelings are permanent in their nature, and large in their object. And how wonderful are, often, their effects! In that awful hour of diffolving nature, when the body is racked with expiring agonies, faith and hope have frequently prefented the moft aftonishing fpectacles of fortitude, yea even of triumph! The mind, borne upward towards its Maker, has been able to fmile in pangs, and to exult in diffolution.'

The pleasure we have felt on the perufal of many of thefe memoirs, and our conftant defire to cherish the beginnings of any useful inftitution, having made us extend our remarks on thefe volumes to an unusual length, we fhall only add that the figure which ftands as a frontifpiece to the first volume appears to us to be delineated in fuch a natural, unaffected manner, and with fuch uncommon truth of expreffion, without any touch

7

of

of grimace, as does great honour to the taste and execution of the performers. It was drawn by G. Bew, Secretary to the Society, and engraved by Angus.

ART. III. Tranfactions of the Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. Vol. IV. 8vo. 4s. Boards. Becket, &c. 1786.

HE Public is already acquainted with the nature of this

THE
Society, which has fubfifted for more than twenty years,

with unimpaired luftre, and at the present moment contains a numerous body of the most refpectable members of the commanity, who generously contribute money to form a joint fund for the encouragement of arts, and, with ftill more liberality of mind, appropriate fome fhare of their time and attention to promote the profperity of their native country, by the diffemination of ufeful knowledge; and we hope their labours will be crowned with fuch obvious fuccefs, as will encourage them not to flacken in their laudable endeavours.

The prefent volume of the transactions of this refpectable Society is divided, as ufual, into papers relative to agriculture, chemistry, polite arts, manufactures, mechanics, colonies, and trade; and contains lifts of the rewards adjudged in 1785, of prefents received, of officers of the Society, of premiums, 1786, and of members. We shall endeavour to give fome notion of the principal papers in each of these claffes, in order as they

occur.

AGRICULTURE.

Thomas White of Retford in Nottinghamshire, Efq. obtained the gold medal for having planted the greatest number of English elms. The firft paper in this clafs contains an authentic account of the different kinds of timber trees planted on that gentleman's eftate in the county of Durham, as they were numbered before they were fet in the ground, viz.

Alders

Afh, Mountain

37,230

Beech.

Birch

Elms

Firs, Scotch

4,000

1,150

62,692

10,000

35,135

*For our account of the three preceding volumes, fee Reviews, vol. lxx. p. 199. vol. lxxii. p. 17. and vol. Ixxiii. p. 172.

A noble

A noble plantation indeed! We rejoice that fo much attention is bestowed on this very ufeful article, in England, by fome individuals, though we must regret that thofe individuals are fo few; because we are fatisfied that no rural improvement can ever turn out fo beneficial either to the perfons who undertake it, or to the Public in general, as plantations of timber trees made with judgment. We are informed that, in Scotland, it is no uncommon thing for a private gentleman to plant feveral millions of trees; and we have heard of one baronet there, who boafted he had planted, during his own lifetime, FIFTY MILLIONS! but we knew not before that any private gentleman in England had made fuch extenfive plantations as the above.

We cannot, however, help remarking, that in the above lift there is not to be found a fingle plant of the two most valuable trees this country produces, viz. the oak and the ash, though we are glad to fee that the number of larches is fo great. Perhaps fome peculiarity of the foil and fituation that we know nothing of, has been the cause of the exclufion of our royal oak and her useful rival, the afh. But we can fcarcely form an idea of an extent of land fo confiderable, without a proper place for fome of thefe trees; and therefore we lament their total exclu

fion.

The Rev. Mr. Clofe, of Trimley, near Ipfwich, communicates the refult of what he feems to think an important experiment, in the fecond paper. Six acres and a half of a mixed loamy land were fet with wheat on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of October 1783, planting alternately two feet two inches, and leaving the fame diftance unplanted. April 26th, 1784, the intervals were fet with the best champion potatoes. The wheat was fet with a frame two feet two inches wide, divided into feven tines (five tines he thinks preferable). The potatoes were dropped in a furrow made by a small deep pitched double breasted plough, about ten inches from set to set in the rows. Produce on the whole, of wheat 32 cooms at 11. 2s.

per coom

Ditto of potatoes, 100 facks, which fold at 6s. per

fack

ditto

£.35 4 0

or per acré

9

L. II 14

Mr. Close confiders this as a very great crop, and views this mode of planting wheat and potatoes together on the fame ground as a very great improvement. We fee it in neither of thefe lights: 32 quarters of wheat and 296 facks of potatoes would not be reckoned an extraordinary produce from fix acres and a half of REV. Dec. 1786.

E e

good

good land in two years. This is only at the rate of 136 bushels of potatoes (fuppofing the fack to be 3 bushels) per acre; and it is well known that three times that quantity has been obtained, and 4 quarters 3 bushels and a half of wheat per acre, which would not be reckoned a great crop on any well-cultivated field. It thus appears that neither the crop of wheat nor of potatoes was fo great as if the two crops had been obtained in fucceffive years. Nor is it poffible to cultivate the ground at any time fo perfectly by this half-husbandry, as Mr. Clofe calls it, as could be done by fucceffive crops of potatoes and grain.

We next find an account of fome drilled crops, by Mr. Whitmore. The crop of barley he mentions, which, when drilled in rows at 18 inches diftance, yielded fixty bushels of barley per acre, is a very good one. But Mr. Whitmore, who feems to be but a beginning farmer, has already found out one very material defect that will ever attend the mode of culture he is fo highly enamoured with, that of giving late and unequally ripe grain. After he has had at least twenty years experience we shall be much more difpofed to follow his practice, than his advice at prefent. He is certainly in a great mistake, when he fuppofes the roots of barley extend no farther than fix inches in queft of food. Let him confult Tull's experiments, to afcertain how far the roots of plants extend.

The gold medal was adjudged to Mr. Thomas Robins, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, for the greatest quantity of turniprooted cabbages per acre. The certified weight per acre is 13 tons 10 cwt. and 76 pounds. This, he admits, is a fmall produce in comparison of turnips; but he thinks, as it comes into use at a time when food is fcarce, the value makes up for the smallness of the quantity. After the turnips were all gone, he found that 200 ewes with their lambs (quere, the average weight of the ewes), could be kept a day on one ton, or twenty hundred weight of these cabbage. The whole value of this crop depends on its keeping as a green food late in the fpring. This is the fact therefore that should be chiefly attended to, that it may be fully afcertained,

It appears by a letter from Mr. John Rofs, profeffor of church hiftory in the University of Aberdeen, that the turnipcabbage refifts the feverity of the winter in the northern parts of Scotland.

In the fubfequent article Mr. Wagftaff, of Norwich, communicates to the Society the refult of fome experiments which he ad made on cultivating unimproved and healthy foils. Thofe d of foils which come under that defcriputious how they follow his example; for it on many foils of that denomination, their

ho are

no very extraordinary crop of turnips.

crops

crops would be-nothing. Certainly fome peculiarity, not mentioned in Mr. Wagstaff's foil, has been the cause of its producing fuch fingular crops under the culture he gave it. Ought not the Society to have taken notice of this peculiarity?

Next follows an account of fome experiments on the culture of a giant hemp, which grows to 14 feet high; and of a kind of flax, the feeds of both which were brought from China. But neither of them appears to be adapted to our climate.

The most interefting paper in this department, is an account of the manner of inclofing Rufhley island, fituated between Great Wakering in Effex, and Foulnefs ifland; by which two hundred and fixteen acres of land, which were covered every floodtide, but left dry on the ebb, were totally recovered from the fea, and effectually defended against being ever overflowed by it. This work was atchieved by Mr. John Harriot of Rochford, between the middle of June 1781, and the 17th of January 1782; for which he obtained the Society's gold medal.

Though this would have been reckoned a small undertaking in Holland, where much land has been recovered from the fea that was in a fituation far more difficult to be cleared of water, and fecured from it; yet as fuch undertakings are little known in this country, we think much praife is due to Mr. Harriot for having ventured fo far out of the common road, and fo happily accomplished his aim. As we think the method he followed was fimple, natural, and not very expenfive, while it, at the fame time, bids fair for being effectual, we fhall briefly give an account of it to our Readers, hoping it may ftimulate fome to follow his example: for we know, from our own obfervation, that many thousands of acres of valuable land might be recovered from the fea at a small expence, round the skirts of this our native ifle, and its appurtenances.

Mr. Harriot, very judiciously, adopted the kind of fence fo particularly defcribed in a book, entitled, Effays relating to Agriculture and rural Affairs (publifhed, if we miftake not, about ten years ago), and there demonftrated to be the only effectual mode of refifting, at a moderate expence, the force of water. This contrivance was nothing more than that of forming the fence in the shape of an oblique inclined plane towards the water. On this principle, Mr. Harriot raised a bank of earth round his little ifle, thirty feet wide at bottom, feven feet high, and four feet wide at top, giving the advantage of the batter, or flope, full two for one on the outside: that is, every foot in height was drawn in two feet; by this means the violence of the waves is fo much abated, that inftead of beating, fhaking, and tearing the banks, which is the cafe of all that I have feen, they spend their fury in a gentle curl up the flope of the bank."

* See Rev. vol. lvi. p. 179, for an account of thofe Effays.

Ee z

With