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quiry, and as worthy of but slight reliance when not corroborated by higher authorities. We were not wholly strangers to the character of the Author: but we might be satisfied with the information which he has been pleased, in these pages, to impart to us respecting himself. It is from him we learn that he is an Abbé, that he finds fault with the tolerant maxims of the reign of Louis XVI., and that he is at the same time married; that he is an admirer of the ancien regime, a partisan of the despotic system founded by Richelieu; and that he, the self-same Soulavie, held a public confidential situation during the reign of terror, viz. the office of minister from the Republic of France to that of Geneva.

ART. VII. Transactions of the Society instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce; with Premiums offered in the Year 1801. Vol. XIX. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Boards. Robson, &c.

WE

1801.

E have heard of a nobleman who, on coming to town for the winter season, was accustomed to inquire of his cabinet-makers in New Bond-street what they had invented, since he saw them last, to make life pass more comfortably? With similar curiosity, we take up every new volume published by this Society; whose laudable object is to promote both the pleasing and the useful, and to advance those arts by which nature is improved, and the comforts of human life enlarged. The patronage which it so amply merits from the public, we are pleased to find that it continues to receive; and though the encouragements which it holds forth are not sufficient to gratify the vain and the ambitious, they may nevertheless operate as additional stimulants on minds which are well directed, and occupied in pursuits connected with national utility and the general happiness of mankind.

The present Secretary to the Society, Mr. Charles Taylor, introduces a sensible and well-digested Preface, with a respectful tribute to the memory of the late Owen Salusbury Brereton, Esq.; who long took an active part in the concerns of the Society, as one of its Vice-presidents, and whose portrait is annexed as a frontispiece to the present volume. These particulars of Mr. Brereton's life were communicated by the late John Holliday, Esq., F.R.S., and are given with such brevity that we cannot object to transcribing them:

He was the son of Thomas Brereton, Esq. of the County Palatine of Chester, and was born in the year 1715: he received his education partly at Westminster School on the foundation, partly at Trinity College, Cambridge; and, on the death of his father, inherited the ancient family estates, in the above-mentioned county, and in Flintshire.

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In 1738 Mr. Brereton was called to the Bar, and in 1746 became Recorder of the great and flourishing town of Liverpool; which office he filled with great impartiality and dignity during fiftytwo years. In 1796, on his proposing to resign, the Corporation requested him to retain his situation, and appointed a person to dis charge its active duties.

Mr. Brereton became a Member of the Society of Arts so early as 1762; and by his assiduity, zeal, and order, filled the distinguished office of Vice President with great credit to himself and advantage to the Society, from March 1765 till his last illness in 1798. He was also an early Member of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies. The Archæologia of the latter contain his Observations on Peter Collinson's Account of the Round Towers in Ireland; his Tour through South Wales; his Extracts from the Household Book of Henry VIII.; his Account of a painted window in Brereton Church, Cheshire; and that of a non-descript Coin, supposed to be Philip VI. of France. Mr. Pennant has also, in his Welsh Tour, described and given an engraving of several Roman Antiquities, found by his horse accidentally disturbing them, at a Roman station called Croes Atti, on his estate in Flintshire.

Mr. Brereton was a Bencher of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's-Inn, filled the office of Treasurer, and was Keeper of the Black Book. He also represented the borough of Ilchester in Parliament. He took the name of Salusbury with an estate, and became Constable of the Castle of Flint, a valuable privilege to his adjacent possessions. His domestic happiness was manifest to his numerous and respectable acquaintance, among whom were some of the most learned men of the age.

Mr. Brereton died on the 8th of September, 1798, in the eightyfourth year of his age, and was interred in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. His wife was sister of Sir Thomas Whitmore, K. B. Mr. Brereton lived happily with her for more than fifty years. They had five children, who all died young; he bequeathed the rents of his estates to her during her life, and after her deccase (which hap pened in 1799,) to his relations; the only son of the late General Trelawney, of Soho-square, and the second son of the Rev. Sir Harry Trelawney, Baronet, of Trelawne, in Cornwall.'

We are informed that the premiums usually proposed by the Society have undergone a minute examination; that several are discontinued, and that new premiums are introduced under the articles

Comparative Tillage; Rotation of Crops; Preserving of Turnips, Cabbages, Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, and Potatoes; Inventing Threshing-Machines; Manufacturing Tallow-Candles; Preparation of Tan; Preparations of Red and Green Colours for Printing on Cotton Cloth; artificial Ultramarine; Stroke Engravings; Chintz and Copper-Plate Designs for Calico-Printers; Engravings on Wood; Bronzes; Improved Ventilation; Cultivation of Hemp in Canada, and Curing Herrings in the Dutch Method.

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To this enumeration, it is added that the Society will attend to any information respecting such matters, as may be proper objects for farther Premiums Availing ourselves of this notice, and without expecting either a gold or a silver medal, we shall offer some remarks to the Society on a subject to which the attention of the public is directed by premiums, before we take farther notice of the communications which form the substance of the present volume.

Under the head of Planting and Husbandry, two premiums are proposed, (Nos. 11. and 13.); one for Preventing the Blight or Ravages of Insects on Fruit-trees and Culinary Plants, and the other for Removing the ill Effects of Blights or Insects. Before attempts are made either to prevent or to remove the ill effects of Blight, would it not be advisable to propose a reward for the best essay explanatory of the nature and origin of what is commonly called Blight; since the subject appears to be very little understood; and since, after the cause of this evil is well ascertained, it will be more easy to decide on the application of a preventative, palliative, or remedy?-Few persons appear to have considered the subject of Blight with an attentive and philosophic eye. It is generally supposed to be caused or occasioned, in the first instance, by insects brought in the wind and deposited on certain plants: but, if insects were conveyed on the wings of the wind to attack our vegetables, should we not perceive them in their flight before they commenced their ravages? and would not some of them at least alight on other objects? Is it not a more probable opinion, that the appearance of insects on plants is the consequence instead of the original cause of Blight; and that this malady, which the vegetable creation sustains, is effected by sudden changes in the atmosphere from heat to cold: by which the tender organs of vegetation are injured, the mounting sap checked and inspissated, and both a nidus and food created for various kinds of insects? A cold night, or even a cold half-hour in a night, when it has been preceded by a warm day, may burst the vessels of plants in a state of growth, injure their leaves and tender shoots, thicken their juices, and bring on such a diseased state as invites the attacks of insects, which in a healthy state would not approach it. Is not this the whole theory of what is usually denominated Blight? and does not the changeable state of the atmosphere, in those springs in which Blights are most prevalent, justify this opinion? We could adduce many facts in corroboration of this hypothesis: but, not having leisure to pursue the subject, we must content ourselves with suggesting the idea in the form of a query; hoping that it will be taken up and investigated by others. We would Bb 3 propose

propose that the parts of plants, as soon as they discover any symptom of disease, should be subjected to microscopical observation, and that lateral and transverse sections of them should be immediately examined. If it should be clearly ascertained that Blights are caused, in the first instance, by sudden changes from heat to cold, and again from cold to heat, in the atmosphere; it concerns the Planter, the Gardener, and the Husbandman, to consider how far he may guard against these changes, and prevent Blight; or how he may proceed in removing its ill effects. A knowlege of the cause will assist in the application of the best remedy.

We now return to the contents of the volume before us, which are arranged in the usual manner.

The PAPERS on AGRICULTURE

consist of a Letter from Henry Vernon, Esq. of Hilton-Park, near Wolverhampton, with An Account of the Plantation of 4000 English Elms, which are certified to be in a very thriving state a -of a Letter from Mr. Thomas Selby, of Otford Castle, Kent, claiming the premium for Planting Twenty-one Acres of Osiers, to the amount of 20,000 per acre :-of an account of The Planting of 250,000 Trees of different Kinds, on the estates of Thomas Johnes, Esq. of Hafod, Cardiganshire. The very extensive and luxuriant plantations of this gentleman meet with peculiar notice in the Secretary's preface; where, also, deserved praise is bestowed on Mr. Johnes for his spirited agricultural exertions,

This Gentleman, by his excellent discrimination, and by exer tions perhaps unparalleled, has converted a Desert to a Paradise; and in a wild uncultivated part of Wales, has raised such enchanting scenes, as afford inexpressible pleasure to every spectator. Mr. George Cumberland, whose taste and judgment have been displayed in several publications, made the following observations on seeing Hafod, in the year 1796. "So many are the delights afforded by the scenery of this place and its vicinity, to a mind imbued with any taste, that the impression on mine was increased after an interval of ten years from the first visit, employed chiefly in travelling among the Alps, the Appennines, the Sabine Hills, the Tyrolese, along the shores of the Adriatic, over the Glaciers of Switzerland, and up the Rhine, where, though in search of beauty, I never saw any thing so fine; never so many pictures collected in one point of view."

Every person will feel a pleasure on being informed that, since the above description, very considerable improvements have been made there, particularly very lately, in the farms; that the additions in this line, and fertilizing Waste Ground, take place every year; that the number of Trees planted on Hafod estate, between October 1795 and April 1801, amount to 2,065,000, of which 1,200,coo are Larches; that, besides the above Trees, fifty-five acres of land

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have been sown with Acorns, or planted with Oaks; that Mr. Johnes is still extending his plantations, and greatly improving the scenery of his estate. We are told, that the Cheese sold by him the last season, amounted to four tons, and his Butter 1200lbs. He expects his Dairy will furnish him, during the next year, ten tons of Cheese for sale.'

An Account of the Management of several Fields (145 Acres) of Spring Wheat, belonging to Mr. Robert Brown, near Haddington, Scotland, is given in the next paper; from which it is inferred that wheat may be sown with advantage in the spring months, till the middle of March, if the weather be then dry, the land in good condition, and if the succeeding summer should prove moderately warm: that the period of harvest is not retarded above ten days; and that the grain produced is equally good in quality with that which is sown in the autumn and winter months. Spring-sowing, however, is not recommended, except when bad weather prevents the autumnal operation.

We have next a detail of the method pursued in Courland for making Clover-Hay, in wet, of, generally speaking, in what our farmers denominate catching weather. It proceeds on the principle of evaporating the aqueous particles by fermentation. After the clover has remained in the swath till four o'clock in the afternoon of the day following its being cut, in order to dry, it is made into large cocks, such as would require six or eight horses to remove; in these cocks, it sweats or ferments till the middle of the next day; it is then turned, to have the moisture arising from the fermentation exhaled by the sun and wind; and about four in the afternoon it will be sufficiently dry to be carted into the barn, without danger of a second fermentation. Thus, it is stated, Clover will require only three days from the time of mowing to its being housed, and will be managed with a great saving of labour.-This idea is worthy the attention of our farmers, especially with reference to their second cuts: but we would not advise them to put the hay together in the rick, unless it be a small one, on the third day from its being mowed. Let the farmer avail himself of the method here recommended: but we would warn him, according to the old proverb, not" to make more haste than good speed;" because clover-hay, if put together before the moisture is suffi ciently evaporated, is very liable to take fire. It is observed that, after the cocks have sufficiently fermented, the clover must be spred, even though it should rain; and that the fermented clover will remain good, after having been exposed for some weeks to incessant rains, provided that it be at last suffered to dry, before it be finally housed. We shall only add that Farmers may believe as much of this as they please.

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