that grain, but for the grasses which should be sown with it, and for the important object of making all the seed-weeds grow, in order to kill them by the following tillage. This April preparation marking the land for buck-wheat. I shall therefore take this opportunity to advise the farmers in general to try this crop. Nineteen parishes out of twenty, through the kingdom, know it only by name. It has numerous excellences, perhaps as many, to good farmers, as any other grain or pulse in use. It is of an enriching nature, having the quality of preparing for wheat or any other crop. One bushel sows an acre of land well, which is but a fourth of the expense of seed barley. It should not be sown till the end of May. This is important; for it gives time in the spring to kill all the seed-weeds in the ground, and brings no disagreeable necessity, from bad weather in March or April, to sow barley, &c. so late as to hazard the crop. It is as valuable as barley: where it is known, it sells at the same price; and, for fatting hogs and poultry, it equals it. It is, further, the best of all crops for sowing grass-seeds with, giving them the same shelter as barley or oats, without robbing." - "Lettuces for hogs. If the stock of swine be large, it is proper to drill half an acre or an acre of lettuce this month. The land should have been well manured and ploughed before the Christmas frosts, into ridges of the size that suits the drill-machine. It should also have been scuffled in February, and again in March, and well harrowed; and this repeated before drilling. The rows should be equi-distant, one foot asunder. "The crop which was drilled in March (a succession being essentially necessary) should now be thinned in the rows, by hand, to about nine or ten inches asunder. If this necessary attention be neglected, the plants draw themselves up weak and poor, and will not recover it. Women do this business as well as men. When about six inches high, they should be horse-hoed with a scarifier or scuffler, with the hoe about four inches, or at most five, wide." "Siberian melilot. The melilotus alba Sibyrica, from Mons. Thouin, at the King's garden at Paris, makes, in the garden of Mons. Faugas de St. Fond, a most superb figure. Nobody can view its prodigious luxuriance, without commending the thought of cultivating it for cattle. The coronilla varia is a common plant here, and of such luxuriance, that it is hardly to be destroyed. The hedysarum coronarium does well here.' From this hint (which I extract from my own Travels) I introduced the culture of the melilot in my experiment ground, and found it an object much deserving attention." "Yellow-blossomed vetch (Lathyrus pratensis). This is a very common plant in many pastures and meadows, and much deserves the attention of the experimental farmer. I have made various attempts to cultivate it, but not with the success I could wish; resulting, in a good measure, from the seed being attacked by an insect, which damages much of it. It does well by transplantation, but the method is too expensive. "Coronilla varia. Another plant which we shall, some time or other, see in common cultivation, and well merits a careful attention. It roots like couch, and is extremely difficult to destroy. I thought I had clean rooted up a bed of it, for transplantation into a larger piece of ground; but it came again the year following almost as luxuriant as ever. Since this passage was written, I extended my cultivation of this plant, &c. giving it in the soiling way to some cattle and horses in a farm-yard, to which hogs had access. I was soon informed that they were taken ill, which ended in the death of one or two. Not thinking it likely to be occasioned by their eating this plant, I supposed that it might be occasioned by some unknown cause; but I determined to watch them carefully the following year, when my crop of coronilla should be mown; and this being done, the very same result took place: the hogs were ill, and one or two died. This circumstance, to my great mortification, rendered it necessary it is not easy so to depend on the carefulness of servants, as to rely on the safety of the swine during the consumption of the crop; but the plant well deserves the attention of any cultivator who either keeps no swine, or has them at all times locked securely in a safe system of yards and styes; the produce of the plant being very great." No. VI. DANIEL RUTHERFORD, M.D. PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. (By Andrew Duncan, Sen. M.D. & P.) DR. DANIEL RUTHERFORD was born in Edinburgh on the 3d of November, 1749. He was the son of Dr. John Rutherford, one of the eminent founders of the medical branch of the university of Edinburgh. His mother, the second wife of Dr. Rutherford, was Anne Mackay, a descendant of the family of Lord Rae, an ancient peer of Scotland. The earliest part of Dr. Daniel Rutherford's education was begun at Edinburgh, under his father's roof. When arrived at his seventh year, he commenced the rudiments of the Latin language, at the school of a private teacher, (Mr. Mundell,) who had at that time gained great celebrity in Edinburgh, as an instructor of youth. This was demonstrated by the proficiency of many of Mundell's pupils; for Dr. Rutherford had there, as his school-fellows, several men who afterwards arrived at great and deserved eminence in the northern capital: among others, I may mention Sir Islay Campbell, Baronet, who was afterwards president of the Court of Session; Dr. Monro, secundus professor of anatomy; and William Ramsay, Esquire, an eminent banker, who acquired a princely fortune as the fruit of his own judicious efforts. By these men, and, indeed, I may say by all his school-fellows, Dr. Rutherford was uniformly esteemed and beloved. After finishing the usual grammatical course of Latin and Greek, as then taught by Mundell, Dr. Rutherford was sent for some time to an academy in England, chiefly with a view On his return from that academy, he commenced his studies at the university of Edinburgh, under the tuition of his venerable father, then Emeritus Professor of the Practice of Medicine, who, though he had retired from teaching in public, still possessed very great vigour, both of mind and body. Dr. Rutherford went through the regular academical course, until he obtained the degree of Master of Arts; and he had the good fortune to have for his preceptors several distinguished professors, who were at that time the ornaments of the university. Among others I may mention Mr. George Stuart, Professor of Humanity; Mr. Hunter, of Greek; Mr. Stevenson, of Logic; Mr. Matthew Stuart, of Mathematics; Dr. Ferguson, of Moral Philosophy, and Mr. Russell, of Natural Philosophy. After finishing a regular course under the professors of the faculty of arts, he entered upon his medical studies at the university. Here he had, for his first preceptor, his quondam school-fellow, Alexander Monro secundus, who, at a very early period of life, had been conjoined with his illustrious father, Alexander Monro primus, long the colleague of the father of Dr. Rutherford. Thus, under both Monros, Dr. Rutherford had an opportunity of studying anatomy. He attended the lectures on chemistry, first as given by Dr. Cullen, and afterwards by Dr. Black, who succeeded Dr. Cullen as professor of chemistry, in the year 1766. He was a pupil at the botanical lectures of Dr. Hope, and at those on the materia medica by Dr. Home. He attended the lectures, not only on the theory, but also on the practice of medicine, as delivered both by Dr. Cullen and by Dr. John Gregory; for at that time the professorships of theory and practice of physic were conjoined, and these branches of medical science were taught in alternate years by the conjunct professors; a mode of teaching which was attended with many great advantages, and which ought never to have been relinquished in the university of Edinburgh. By means such as these, the attentive student |