Farming in the Highlands of Scoiland. Saffron, Indian corn. ignorance and violent prejudices of the farmers. Though the value of sea shells as a manure had been known in Cornwall at least as early as 1675; and though the process followed had been published in the Transactions, yet in 1744 the use of them was so little understood in Suffolk, that a farmer who found it out by accident soon realized an ample fortune by the discovery.* IV. In the year 1675, Sir George Mackenzie gives some account of the mode of husbandry practised in the Highlands of Scotland. Oats and barley appear to have been the only grain raised. Sea weed was employed as a manure, which was found to answer much better for barley than oats. The increase he says often amounts to 18 times the quantity sown.t V. The culture of saffron was introduced into England from the Low Countries, and is still practised in several counties, especially in the neighbourhood of Cambridge. Saffron consists of the dried styles and stigmata of the flowers of the crocus sativus. Some of the cakes consist of the parts of the flowers without any addition; but towards the end of the crop, when the flowers become small, it is customary to sprinkle the cake with a quantity of beer. On account of the high price of saffron, and the small quantity produced, safflower has been introduced by apothecaries as a substitute, and is commonly sold instead of it. There are two different papers in the Philosophical Transactions giving an account of the method of cultivating the plant, and preparing the saffron. The first by the Hon. Charles Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk ;‡ and the second, which is more circumstantial and complete, by Dr. James Douglass. § + VI. When North America was first planted by the English, they observed that the Indians cultivated a sort of grain peculiar to that country, and now well known by the name of Zea Mays or Indian corn. It grows to the length of six or eight feet, and the grains are arranged in several rows upon the head which has a considerable size. This corn has a sweetish taste, and makes very palatable bread. It is much cultivated by the Americans, and is even employed for making beer, and for various purposes of domestic economy. There is in the Philosophical Transactions a very minute and accurate account of the mode of cultivating Mays by Mr. Winthrop. The mode practised by the Americans at that period to convert it into malt is curious. They spread it on garden soil, covered it slightly with earth, and allowed it to remain till the surface was covered over with a green vegetation. It was then dug up, cleaned and dried, and used as malt. Mr. Winthrop assures us that the usual mode of malting barley had been tried with maize but without success. The Americans had *Phil. Trans. 1744. Vol. XLIII. p. 191. + Phil. Trans. 1675. Vol. X. p. 396. Phil. Trans. 1728. Vol. XXXV. p. 566.. another method of preparing beer from mays which is no less curious. The mays was ground and baked into bread. The bread was broken into lumps which were infused in hot water; this water was then fermented and constituted good beer. corn in 1685. VII. In the Transactions for 1685, we have the weight of a cubic foot of a Weight of variety of substances, as determined by the experiments of the Philosophical Society of Oxford. From this table we may deduce the following as at that time the weight of a bushel of wheat, barley, and oats, raised in England. The weight of the bushel of the same grain at present is considerably greater. For example, good Norfolk barley usually weighs 53lb. per bushel. I have even weighed barley from Essex, and from the Carse of Gowery, in Scotland, heavier than 54lb. per bushel. From this increase of weight it seems reasonable to conclude that the quality of grain has considerably improved in GreatBritain since the year 1685. VIII. Coffee has been used in Eastern nations from time immemorial; but its Coffee. introduction into England, as we learn from a curious paper in the Transactions by Mr. Houghton,† is but of very recent date. In the year 1652, Mr. Daniel Edwards, a Smyrna merchant, brought over with him into England a Greek servant named Pasqua, who made his coffee which he drank two or three dishes at a time, twice or thrice a day. This gentleman seems to have been one of the first persons that made use of coffee in England; though Dr. Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, is said likewise to have frequently drunk it. It gradually made its way into private houses, which induced Mr. Edwards to set up Pasqua as a coffeeman. He got a shed in the church-yard of St. Michael, Cornhill, and thus opened the first coffee-house in England. In the year 1699, the annual consumption of coffee, in Great-Britain, amounted to about 100 tons, and it sold at the rate of 141. per ton. trees. IX. The great profit that results from plantations of trees, and the annual Growth of increase of their value, was never better demonstrated than by the following table drawn up by Mr. Marsham of Stratton, from his own observations.‡ Measure of trees taken in April 1743, before they began to shoot; and again in autumn 1758, after the year's growth was completed. The measure taken at five feet from the earth. Mode of increasing fruit. Produce of a wheat seed. Indigenous trees. 1. Ash, planted since 16-17. .. 2. Oak past thriving, but sound. 9 10 4 19 4 410 1 00 8 4 Inches. 8ths of inch. 8ths of inch. Feet. Inches. Feet. 8ths of inch. Inches. Cubic feet. Quarters. Inches. Cubic feet. NO CO Quarters. 60 1 318 76 3 43 16 1 57 54 1 336 63 2 80 Inches. 6 3 378 31 5 0 24 1 284 36 2 408 4. Scotch fir, seed in 1698.. 5. Oak, planted about 60 years. 5 11 1 7 2 31 6. Spanish chesnut near 60 years old. 66 8. Oak, planted in 1720.. 22 0 5 1 4 3 11 10 0 3 2 260 7 0 2 8 21 1 2 1 2 116 9 5 4 9 41 11 7 4 2 391 |213 0 300 322 0 3331109 0 33 10 0 0 68 4 1 336 14 0 176 9. Scotch fir, planted 1734; 2 feet high 1 11. Oak, set an acorn in 1719. X. Mr. Fitzgerald cut off a portion of bark at the bottom of a fruit tree branch, and immediately bound it on again. The consequence was, that the branch bore much fruit, while the bark grew again to the wood as at first. He recommends this as a good method of increasing the quantity of fruit upon trees.* * XI. Mr. Millar by repeated divisions obtained from a single seed of wheat 500 plants. These yielded 21,109 ears, or about 576,840 grains. The whole amounted to three pecks and three quarters of clean corn, and weighed 471b. 7oz. This is perhaps the greatest instance of increase upon record; yet it appears from the observations of Dr. Watson who relates it, that the plants would have admitted of still greater divisions, and that of course the increase might have been still greater.† XII. Mr. Daines Barrington published an elaborate paper, to shew that the Spanish chesnut and lime trees are not indigenous in England. He is of the same opinion with respect to the elm, the yew, and several other of our common trees. Dr. Ducarel adopted the opposite opinion; and has proved, in a satisfactory manner, that the Spanish chesnut was common in England during the time of the Saxons. The subject is not very susceptible of decision. * + Phil. Trans. 1762. Vol. LII. p. 71. + Phil. Trans. 1768. Vol. LVIII. p. 203. § Phil. Trans. 1771. Vol. LXI. p. 136. Mr. Barrington's opinion would appear very probable; and the time when these trees, and probably many other useful plants, were transplanted into England, was, no doubt, when the Romans had possession of the country, and, of course, anterior to the period of the Saxons. XIII. Dr. Hales, in his Vegetable Statics, had recommended washing the Washing trees stems of trees, as a means of promoting their growth. This advice was followed by Mr. Marsham, who published two papers in the Transactions, giving an account of the results.* In all the trials which he made, and they were pretty numerous, the washed trees vegetated faster, and increased more in diameter, in a given time, than the unwashed trees. It is difficult to explain the reason of this advantage, resulting from washing the stems of trees, unless we are to ascribe it to the removal of the lichens and mosses, which may, perhaps, withdraw a considerable portion of the juices of the tree for their own nourishment. fruit trees. XIV. We shall conclude our extracts from the Philosophical Transactions, Grafting of on the subject of the agriculture and economy of plants, with a curious paper by Mr. Knight, on the grafting of fruit trees. From his observations, it appears that most of the old varieties of apple and pear tree, are worn out with old age. age. When a When a young tree is engrafted, from a branch of an old tree, the branch retains all the defects of the old tree; exhibits the same symptoms of old age; and is subject to the same diseases. On the contrary, if the graft be taken from a very young tree, (as a tree raised lately from seed,) it possesses all the health of the young plant; vegetates with vigour, but will not bear fruit till it has acquired the age at which the tree, from which it was taken, becomes capable of bearing. Grafts from old trees bear fruit immediately, but are as unhealthy as the parent trees. Grafts from young trees are healthy and vigorous, but do not bear fruit till the tree, from which they were taken, has reached its thirteenth or fourteenth year.t CHAP. II. OF ZOOLOGY. THIS department of Natural History must always have possessed attractions for philosophers; as man, the chief and sovereign of terrestrial animals, belongs to it. Even the politician and the man of business cannot view it with * Phil. Trans. 1777. Vol. LXVII. p. 12; and 1781. Vol. LXXI. p. 449. Division of zoology. indifference, as no small share of our power, and almost the whole of our comforts, depend upon the use which we make of the inferior animals. Hence it becomes a curious and highly useful inquiry to ascertain the dispositions, powers, and propensities of those animals, which assist us in our labour, or contribute to our food. It consists of various departments, which it will be requisite to consider separately. The first department is occupied with the arrangement and description of animals. It is to this branch of the subject, that the term Zoology is usually confined; but we must here take it in a more extended sense, that we may include under it several branches of knowledge which cannot be conveniently placed any where else. Zoologists have found, that the only method of arranging animals systematically, which can be followed with advantage, is founded upon the knowledge of their structure. Now this knowledge can be acquired only by anatomy. Hence anatomy is intimately, and indeed inseparably, connected with the arrangement of animals. But anatomy has been also made subservient to the purposes of surgery and medicine. On that account, human anatomy has been exalted into a state of much greater comparative importance than the anatomy of the inferior animals. The term anatomy, without any epithet, is usually applied to human anatomy; while the anatomy of the inferior animals, is called comparative anatomy. The functions of the different animals, and especially of man, have been studied with great care; chiefly, it must be acknowledged, by the physicians, and with a medical object in view; and this study has been raised to the dignity of a science, and distinguished by the name of physiology. It naturally comes to be considered after anatomy, human and comparative, upon which it is in a great measure dependent. Animals, especially man, are liable to various accidents and diseases, which derange the functions and injure the health. Much attention and study has been bestowed upon the method of remedying these accidents, and curing these diseases, especially when they occur in man ; and this study has given birth to two sciences, or rather professions, we mean surgery and medicine. These, as far as they are possessed of any principles, are dependent for them upon anatomy and physiology; and therefore naturally come to be considered after these two branches of knowledge. All of these various departments occupy a very conspicuous place in the Philosophical Transactions, and come, therefore, necessarily under our review. We shall accordingly divide this chapter into five sections; treating respectively, 1. Of the arrangement and description of animals. 2. Of anatomy. 3. Of comparative anatomy. 4. Of physiology. 5. Of surgery and medicine. SECT. I. Of the Arrangement and Description of Animals. Aristotle. The earliest writer, who turned his attention to the animal kingdom was |