**The Public are requested to guard against impositions, from persons Advertising, or pretending to have Patents for Articles rewarded by the Society. It is a stipulated condition, that all Persons who receive Premiums or Bounties from the Society, shall relinquish all Pretensions to a Patent for Articles so rewarded, and shall allow them to be made by any Person whatever. The Public are also cautioned against purchasing Articles sold under a pretended sanction of the Society's Name. Information may be had, by inquiry at the Society's House, whether the advertised Articles are, or are not, Deceptions upon the Public. * Since the last Distribution of Rewards, TWO HUNDRED New Members have been elected. The LIST OF PREMIUMS offered, may be had gratis, at the Society's House, in the N.B. Where errors have arisen in the address of any Member of the Society, information is desired to be given to Mr. R. ELWIN, the Collector, at the Society's House, in the Adelphi, who receives the Subscriptions from the Members, and furnishes Receipts for the same. Lately was published, Price 10s. 6d. THE THIRTY-FOURTH VOLUME of the SOCIETY'S TRANSACTIONS, which may be had from the Housekeeper, at the Society's House, in the Adelphi, Also complete Sets of their Transactions, or any single Volume. Also, An ANALYTICAL INDEX of the FIRST TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES of the TRANSACTIONS of the SOCIETY, to the termination of their Session, June, 1807, price 5s. With a list of the Machines and Models in the Society's Repository, to the year 1813, inclusive. A CATALOGUE of BOOKS in the Society's Library, may be procured as above, price One Shilling, with an Appendix thereto. PAPERS IN AGRICULTURE. The GOLD MEDAL of the Society was this Session presented to J. LAWSON, Esq. of Old Mill, near Elgin, for planting 212 Acres with 985,300 Forest Trees. The following Communication was received from him on the subject. I SIR, BEG leave to submit the following statement to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., and should feel very grateful if what I have done should be found to merit the Premium, offered by the Society in 1813, for Forest Trees. In June, 1818, I purchased a small property, called Chappletown, situated in the parish of Drumblade, in the inland part of Aberdeenshire, and consisting of 242 acres, arable; 80 of green pasture; and 246 acres, 2 roods, of hill and moor ground; in all, 568 acres and a half, Scotch measure. Finding the greater part of the moor of a dry gravelly soil, I resolved to plant what was called the hill, with larch and Scotch firs; and, in the autumn of 1813, I agreed with Mr. Alexander Rennie, nurseryman at Aberdeen, for planting it accordingly, and contracted also for having it enclosed with a turf fence, which was executed in a substantial manner, and stands well. The extent of the hill is 200 odd acres, 12 of which being peat moss, were unfit for planting; the remainder, 191 acres, 3 roods, 13 furlongs, were planted in spring, 1814, with twe year old seedling larch and Scotch fir, in nearly equal quantities; and the inner side of the fence was filled up in the autumn of that year with larger larches. The plantation has all been completely filled up, where deficient, during the year 1816, and the whole appears to be in a very thriving state, though in a cold, exposed situation. I have also filled up a small plantation of twenty-one acres, which had been made some years before I purchased the estate, with transplanted larches, which are all doing well. A considerable proportion of both the arable and pasture land being wet, and even marshy, I resolved to drain the whole as completely as possible, and accordingly, since 1818, I have laid out about £ 200 upon drains, which have proved of great advantage. For the drains made on the boundaries of the estate I have charged the tenants nothing, and only per cent. per annum on the amount of the expence of the field drains; by which they are great gainers, the benefit they derive being fully equal to from 15 to 20 per cent. per annum, during their leases. I also am a gainer, as the tenants are now better able than formerly to pay their rents, and my property is considerably improved. 5 I have expended upon this estate, since Whit Sunday being full 20s. per acre on the whole extent, arable, pasture, hill, and moor. I request you will have the goodness to acknowledge the receipt of this communication; and I have the honour to be, I DO hereby certify, of my own knowledge, that what is within stated by JOHN LAWSON, Esq. relative to planting and draining the lands of Chappletown, in this parish, is strictly true; and that these improvements have added greatly to the beauty, as well as value of the estate. Drumblade, October 21st, 1816. ROBERT GORDON, Merchant. AT Aberdeen, the twelfth day of November, eighteen hundred and sixteen years, in presence of FRANCIS GORDON, |