Surely this is a return which might satisfy the most avaricious, a security on which the most timid might advance capital. Should it, from the very splendour of its promises, be view ́ed as chimerical, as doubtless it will be, let any one examine the reasoning, the facts, and computations, for themselves, or apply to the present writer for his authorities and sources of information, and no dread is felt but that the whole speculation will be found to remain unimpeachable, ready to be acted on by the first man of talent and enterprize sufficient to apprehend its advantages.

Though this may seem a rich golden harvest, there are yet gleanings behind far more abundant than the total produce of nine-tenths of the speculations which in the present day are received as remunerative. The present western access to Montrose from Brechin and Strathmore is as awkward, circuitous, and augular, as can be supposed. Let a new road be taken off at Arrot, and brought in a perfectly straight line through the now reclaimed basin right into town at the market-cross, and you have one of the ugliest exchanged for one of the most magnificent approaches in Britain. We hold it as nothing that by this, two miles of uneven and ill-to-be-kept turnpike road would be saved, though, in an economic point of view, that is not to be jested with; but think of the enormous increase of the value of property-think of the magnificent three miles long vista of poplars, which would rush up like magic in such a soil, till more massy and more permanent timber-trees were ready to take their place-think of this passing through fields of unsurpassable fertility and beauty, the gorgeous landscape all around, stretching away under a summer sunset's glow by the hoary history-associated towers of Brechin, over or through Strathmore till the dark blue masses of gigantic Catlaw closed up the scene! Would not this be a change worthy of the science of the nineteenth century to contemplate, and of its art to achieve? After this the natural deepening of the river and improvement of the tide, so that two feet more water might be obtained at Old Montrose, and vessels of fifty tons weight 'liver at the Bridge of Dun, become so insignificant, and though demonstrable that fancy spurns them as worthless and vulgar things

Enamelled Hardware.-This admirable substance is of German invention, and has only of late years been introduced into the southern part of this country, where it is still but partially known. The art of enamelling on iron, it is said, cannot be accomplished by our manufacturers; and we are in a degree disposed to give credence to the assertion; for we know two instances in which potters have given their opinions of the impracticability of its accomplishment. During a visit to London three or four years since, our attention was attracted by some iron sauce pans and frying pans as we passed the shop of an ironmonger at the corner of the Old Bailey, on Ludgate Hill, which appeared as if they were lined with white paper, instead of being tinned in the usual way. On investigation, we found them to be enamelled; and, by inquiry, learnt the following particulars:-That they are imported, a ship-load at a time, from Germany; that the manufacture is unknown in England; that they are durable, and not liable to injure.

We immediately purchased one; and, subsequently, several. others of different sizes, as well as a frying pan, and are entirelysatisfied with them all. We will enumerate their advantages, and our readers will thus judge for themselves, whether or not our panegyric is too highly coloured, when we pronounce them to be the ne plus ultra of cooking utensils,-without a fault! They are kept clean with the least possible trouble; they never crack or craze, and they perfectly retain the colour and the flavour of every product of the culinary art ;—so many sad accidents have resulted, and are still occurring, from the use of copper sauce pans, stew-pans, &c., that it becomes a duty, with every writer of influence, to dissuade the public from the use of them, by urging the deleterious nature of copper on their atten tion. To our readers, we are well aware, this information will be superfluous; but they must know, as well as ourselves, that errors remain unrectified,-abuses exist unabated-faults rest unreproved-dangers lurk and threaten uncared for, until our natural supineness is roused by an actual evil overtaking us, which might and ought to have been prevented from existing. When too late to avert a calamity, we wonder at our apathy, and bewail our culpable remissness. Gentlemen are out of the sphere of copper stew-pans, and provided they find their din

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ners well appointed, care nought for the kind of metal in which they are cooked; domestic matters being very properly consigned to the lady of the establishment. But it unfortunately happens, that ladies dislike to interfere, and rely upon the sagacity of their housekeepers, who also depend upon the cleanliness of their subordinate kitchen-maids; and thus may the lives of a whole household be periled by the ignorance or idleness of this denizen of the scullery, as yet unvisited by "divine philosophy." We can well imagine, that on reaching this period of our subject, some “lord of a wide domain” looking off from his Quarterly Journal," will address his lady with this startling question, "Are there any copper stew-pans or sauce-pans in the kitchens my love? To which she will, with unfeigned surprise, reply, "Really my dear, I do not know, but I dare say Harris can inform you ;" and the affair of poison in a ragôut being momentous, the housekeeper would be summoned, and be in turn astonished with a similar query. Her reply of "Yes, at least a dozen," would complete the incipient dismay; and an order to have the dangerous utensils abolished, with the reason assigned, would infallibly elicit a decided assurance on the part of the confidential servant, that "all stews must be made in copper, for iron, tinned, would impart a flavour; that preserves and pickles must be boiled in copper, because they would lose all colour, and not to be fit to be placed on table, if iron was to be substituted."

This imperative "must" would, alas! in too many cases, decide the matter, and that vile pernicious copper still bear sway in the kitchens. In these admirable German stew-pans, however, we have a succedaneum of unquestionable capabilities, to supersede the necessity of pleasing our eye at the risk of our lives. Every species of cooking has been performed in our own utensils for several years, and to far greater perfection than we ever experienced, previously to the introduction of the enamelled hardware. Independently of its salubrity, we should give it the preference over every other; for, in consequence of the delicate and innocent nature of the glaze, which resembles that of china, all colour and flavour are preserved in their utmost purity; and all housewives are aware that these are desiderata in pickling and preserving.

We have stated that this ware is not liable to injure; but we

ought to have placed this essential advantage in much more forcible language. The union of the enamel with the iron is so intimate, they are so entirely amalgamated, that it is utterly impossible to effect a separation; and we have known, that in the attempt several iron tools have been broken.

If we knew of a fault in them we would gladly name it, not only as a guide to ourselves in our future purchases, but because our readers would, perhaps, trust rather to qualified than unqualified praise. The only drawback which we ever found, was in their weight, which was greater than those made in England of the same size, and perhaps a dissightliness in the forms compared with those of our own manufacture; but both of these trifling objections have recently been removed. We confess that we had misgivings when we made up our mind to order a frying-pan, that the enamel would not endure the very great heat to which that kind of cooking necessarily subjects the vehicle in which it is performed; but we are gratified in being able to assert that we have had one in frequent use for some months past, and it is as white and uninjured as when we received it first.

We should rejoice to hear that our own manufacturers intend to give their attention to this useful and beautiful art, and what can they not achieve with that industry, perseverance, science, wealth, and emulation, for which they are, above those of all other nations, celebrated?

Is the Action of Lime on Land elucidated by Macaire's Theory of Vegetation? By Mr William Browne, Tallantire Hall, Cockermouth.-The late Dr Anderson, who appears to have united, in no common degree, the chemical knowledge of his day with a practical knowledge of agriculture, seems in his essays to think, that lime cannot be applied to land in too large quantities. But though his opinions of its beneficial effects are so decided, it does not appear that his notions were very clear as to its mode of operation.

Sir H. Davy, in his Agricultural Chemistry, from which at the time of its publication so much was expected, and from which (probably owing to his having little practical knowledge of agriculture himself) so little advantage has been derived,

has written a good deal both upon lime and its action on the soil. His conclusions are perhaps not always very clear, nor perhaps in all cases quite in accordance with each other. Whatever difference of opinion, however, may exist upon this point, none, I believe, exists among practical men, that there are many anomalous circumstances attending the application of lime in practice, which are yet unaccounted for and unexplained.

It has long been found that all plants flourish more vigorously when not repeated too frequently on the same spot. But the true cause of this, though of very great importance in practical agriculture, appears to have been unknown, and, till lately, quite unsuspected. The crops most in demand will always induce the farmer to a frequent repetition. Should the theory of Macaire prove, as I make no doubt of, correct, it must ultimately tend to effect a decided change in our rotations, as so often carried on, in inferior districts especially, where we find a succession of corn crops, for instance, far too constantly repeated.

However strong the practical results were in favour of the theory of Macaire, the cause assigned by the farmer for the increasing deterioration of his succeeding crops was an erroneous one. We have been accustomed, not unfrequently, to hear of land being "worn out," "tired," "exhausted;" that it required (like the labourer who tilled it) rest, as well as renovation. In such cases, a stimulus of lime was applied where it could be obtained, which, though known not to be manure, appeared to act as such for a time in some way or other, to the lands in question, by more or less renewing for a short time their fertility, though no one could assign a very competent reason why or wherefore.

Living in a limestone district, and where the management is only very indifferent, I have been often struck by the renovating powers which lime, when applied to such "exhausted" lands, appeared to possess ; especially to lands (a very common occurrence in this vicinity) exhausted as it were by a long and frequent repetition of oat crops, and which lands had received for years no other manure than a miserable pittance of strawy litter. It is true that the effects of lime in such cases appeared