tude and club like form of the antennæ, might easily confound it. The difference between those (these) insects is, indeed, obvious on more close inspection; the Pausus having only two joints in the antennæ, of which that at the extremity is by far the largest; while the antennæ of the true Cerapterus are furnished with several joints, all which are of a compressed form, pinnated, and terminated at both extremities with one larger than the rest.

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The genus Cerapterus is described by Swederus, in the Transac tions of the Swedish Academy for the year 1788, but does not appear to have been noticed by any other author. The description given by Swederus is taken from an insect which he names Cerapterus Latipes, in the collection of General Davies of Blackheath, and which he states to be a native of Honduras, but erroneously, as we are assured that gentleman obtained the insect Swederus mentions from Bengal. Another species of Cerapterus was lately brought from the same country by Mr. Fichtel, who consigned it to the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna. Our Australasian insect, therefore, appears to be the third species of this genus at present known, and being perfectly undescribed, we beg leave to name it in compliment to our good friend A. M'Leay, Esq. S.L.S.'

Much remains to be known with respect to the habitudes of most of the little creatures which pass under the author's review: but he has at least the merit of preparing the way for farther elucidation and inquiry, and of contributing an elegant and-important accession to the library of the entomologist.

ART. V. Communications to the Board of Agriculture; on Subjects relative to Husbandry, and internal Improvement of the Country. Vol. IV. 4to. Fp. 446. 18s. Boards. Nicol. 1805.

BY

y the very nature of its establishment, the Board of Agriculture acquires a pre-eminence over our other agricultural societies; and, considered as an appendage of government, its influence must be extensive. It is therefore not in the least surprizing that, on a question of great national importance, proposed by this Board to the public at large, in consequence of a requisition from the House of Lords, between three and four hundred Essays should have been transmitted; especially if we recollect that our farmers are not now mere terræ filii, but that many of them pursue husbandry animated with a love of science as well as with a love of gain. Indeed, the former, if not always necessary to insure our success in the latter, promises to afford the most steady and effectual assistance. Particular circumstances may defeat the plans and provisions of science: but generally (or in the long run as the country people say,) the principles of true philosophy, reduced to practice, For this reason, we not only take will be profitable to man. pleasure

pleasure in observing the diffusion of knowlege among our agriculturists, but are ready on all occasions to concur with any measures which promise its extention. We are pleased, for instance, to see the farmer now instructed to appreciate the qualities of different soils by the application of chemical tests, and to supersede the vague conjectures of ignorance by real knowlege. It is not, however, so easy as some persons would imagine, to lay down general rules. Experiment must be added to experiment, result must be compared with result, and the communications of intelligent practitioners in one country or district must be perused in conjunction with those who are situated in various others, before any thing like deci sion should be hazarded.

On this principle the Board of Agriculture proceeded, when they offered premiums, by public advertisements addressed to every part of the kingdom, for Essays on "the best Method of converting Grass-Lands into Tillage, and, after a certain Time, of restoring them to Grass again, with Improvement, or at least without Injury;" and though the orthodox doctrine on this subject has been ascertained with tolerable certainty by the Essays already published, the Board was not willing that the community should lose all the Hints that were scattered in those prize Essays, which it would now be unnecessary to print at Jength. From these, therefore, extracts or selections are made, which constitute the first part of the volume now before us. The arrangement is under the following heads :-On certain Soils and the Cultivation ;-Draining;-Paring and Burning;- Manuring;- Fallowing;- Operations of Tillage ;Courses of Crops;-Culture of the Crops introduced on breaking up Grass Land ;-Grasses ;-Feeding or Mowing:-Live Stock ;-Rent;-Grazing and Tillage compared ;-Various Subjects. As the papers are in number one hundred and seventyseven, it is impossible for us to specify them all. We must speak chiefly of general results, and dwell only on select particulars.

Some of the processes detailed under the first head merit preservation, and are worthy of being consulted by practical men. One farmer gives, for instance, an account of a method by which he made a portion of land of 93 acres, now let at 221. IOS., worth at least 100l. per annum. This is improving.-Of the advantages of Paring and Burning, the opinion is becoming very unanimous. We are presented with extracts from a long list of papers relative to this subject, in which the practice is strongly recommended, and the objections to it are obviated. It is remarked by one correspondent, who occupies a farm consisting of a clay and chalk soil; (viz. Mr. Morris Birkbeck of Warnborough near Guildford) • By

By paring and burning, that portion of the turf which contains from three fourths to four-fifths of the undecayed fibres is at once converted into a substance the most favourable to vegetation; and the spongy quality is completely corrected, whilst not more than two inches in depth need be disturbed: thus securing in an effectual manner the best preparation for grain, and the means of the restoration of the turf.

Objections lie against this practice, from the supposed waste of vegetable matter; and some persons alledge that the soil itself suffers diminution.

The latter opinion is not entertained by those who are aware of the refractory nature of earths in general; and the former will probably lose much of its weight, when it is considered, that the fixed principles of plants which are the result of combustion, carbon, phosphate of lime, and fixed alkali, are speedily converted into vegetable nutriment: and that it is only by combustion, or a slower de. composition, which also suffers the volatile parts to exhale, that this change in the vegetable fibre can be effected: therefore the competition in bulk, supposing that the criterion, is not between the ashes of burnt vegetables, and the vegetables in a perfect state, but between the ashes, and the result of this slow decomposition, when as nearly approaching to vegetable nutriment. A great reduction takes place even in rotten dung, before it is fitted to enter the vessels of plants; and in the comparison, the value of the time saved should be thrown into the scale. That something is lost by this process, to the particular field, the volumes of smoke which are seen rolling over the hedges plainly testify; but as this is principally water, coloured by a small portion of oil, it is probably of less importance than the carbon which escapes in gas, when the combustion is complete. The same effects are also produced by fermentation.'

Another writer (Mr. William Wright of Ranby, near Retford) speaks thus of the practice on thin lime-stone land:

I am sorry to hear of the objections of many to paring and burning, under the idea that it diminishes the best soil, which by a frequent repetition, would eventually impair its natural fertility. Plausible as this may appear at first sight, I conceive it is not founded in fact; on the indefinite term of "frequent," I shall only observe, that this practice is neither necessary nor profitable upon land recently laid down, but upon swarth of ten or fifteen, and upon some lands of twenty years standing, the surface will be so thickly matted with vegetables, that on separating the soil from the pared sod, the soil so taken will be found in quantity very small indeed; and I may venture to assert, will be more than restored by the returning ashes of the whole. To corroborate this opinion, I will state the practice of a friend of mine, and his father before him, and of others before them, for near a century past; the estate is their own freehold, and has been in the family for several generations. It is thin lime-stone land, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. They have constantly taken up their swarth by paring and burning, The soil is so thin in some places, after laying about ten years. that the ploughshare scalps the rock, yet no diminution of soil is in the least discovered.'

Under

Under the head of manuring, the operation of fire on land is farther evinced by a paper on burning stubble, by Mr. William Curtis of Lynn:

In a former period of my life, I occupied, under a grandfather, a farm of nine hundred acres of land, with as great diversity of soil as is, I believe, to be found in the same compass, in any part of the kingdom. During this occupation, I made many experiments of renovating old pasture land by tillage, and afterwards returning it to its original state Amidst a variety of these essays, the following appeared to me the most worthy of imitation: I recollect breaking up two pieces of old pasture land, of an exact similitude of soil and aspect. he first piece I ploughed with a common Norfolk plough in the beginning of March, with furrows of about four inches depth. I then harrowed in, broad-cast, four bushels of oats per acre, rol ling the land with a very heavy roller, as soon as the soil was sufficiently dry to permit the operation The crop proved abundant; nine quarters per acre came to the bushel, exclusive of a very great Joss which was scattered in the field: the oats were shorn, leaving the stubble about eighteen inches high. The first fine day after the oats were carried off, I took the advantage of a fair wind, and by the help of a candle and lantern, I so completely set fire to the standing stubble, as to consume every particle of it that appeared upon the surface; but previously to my so doing, I used the precaution of mowing the verges of it to prevent any injury being sustained by the surrounding hedges. This operation completely destroyed every weed and seed that grew, leaving the surface entirely covered with ashes. As soon as harvest was finished, I ploughed the land of a depth just sufficiently to conceal the ashes, and about a fortnight af terwards, I ploughed it again two inches deeper than before. By this variation in ploughing, the ashes became completely intermixed amongst that portion of the soil designed for vegetation. In the month of November I sowed it, broad-cast, with three bushels of wheat per acre, which I ploughed in furrows of about four to a yard, and at a pitch rather less than that at which it was at first broken up. This crop, like the last, proved extremely advantageous; its produce being full five quarters per acre.'

An essay without a name recommends the use of dung from the stable as soon as made: but this practice must be liable to serious objections, especially in many cases. The reason against manuring in frosty weather, given in another paper, is certainly well founded; yet it must be recollected that, when the earth is locked up by the frost, the team has often nothing else to do. A sweeping declamation, also anonymous, is of fered against summer fallowing, in which we are told that winter and summer to land is the same as day and night to man: but, though fallowing has been injudiciously pursued, and recourse has been had to it in cases in which it was not necessary, so that a loss has been sustained which might have been avoided, yet there are circumstances under which it may be expedient; and it is no argument to tell us that meadows,

7

coppices,

coppices, and hedge-rows, produce crops year after year for

ever.'

We have often observed, with concern, the little pains taken by farmers to secure their shocks of corn from the effects of rain, when standing in the field. Heavy showers, in time of harvest, are not unusual; and much injury is often caused by them, and much trouble occasioned by opening the sheaves. The hint suggested, therefore, in the following short extract, on the use of cap sheaves, we would recommend to general attention; particularly as it will enable the farmer, without fear, to give his crop field-rocm, and prevent his hurrying it, before it is thoroughly dry, into the barn or stack:

HARVEST.-By Mr. William Elmhurst, near Horncastle.

I like to have my wheats cut rather green, not to stand till ripe, so as to shake; and I always have mine bound in smallish sheaves, set eight only together; four of the largest, two against two, and the two smallest at the ends, so that they prop and support each other; and the two longest tied ones, opened well and drawn up close to each other, over the other six; and by so doing, I scarcely ever have a stack blown down even with a very strong wind; the two cap sheaves must be tied together by twisting, and a little of the but ends of the sheaves (on both sides) together; and when that is done, and the cap sheaves spread nicely over the other six, neither wind nor rain will hurt the wheat, if it stands out for three, four, or five weeks, being so well covered below the ties: for no one practical failing, in a farmer, is greater, or more ridiculous and injurious, than carrying his crops, of any sort, too hastily; as there is ten times more corn injured by being in too great a hurry, than by its stopping too long in the field; and when wheats are cut rather green and covered, as above, the straw will feed the corn, and make the flour better and finer.'

A report on the utility and consumption of Winter Tares, by Mr. Malcolm of Stockwell Place, is worthy of preservation:

In the month of May, tares will, in ordinary seasons, be fit to be fed off. Sheep should be folded on them, the manner of doing which is not generally known, and if known, is so very seldom practised, that I scarcely ever saw above two or three instances, where any thing like a prudent plan was adopted. I may therefore be excused the liberty of entering more into a detail on that subject. The month of May is a period of great and natural anxiety with the flock as well as stock farmer; he finds in this month very great difficulty to procure the necessary food to keep on his flock after turnips; and he either has recourse to some common, if near at hand, which by the bye is only keeping them alive, or else he must give up some of his best pasture or meadow for their use. But if he be provided with a good succession of tares, he hurdles off a certain portion of them, and turns his flock into that part so hurdled off.

These