which proved of so satisfactory a nature as to lead to an unanimous vote of the Society, that a piece of plate should be presented to the projector of the Establishment.

'It should be here stated, that the new and improved house, for accommodating one hundred cows, as described in this Work, was erected after the Author had been honoured with the above mark of approbation.

The Author having, at another period of his life, acquired of Blythswood a considerable quantity of poor and waste land; he enclosed it, and cultivated large supplies of vegetables and fruits for the use of the city. A portion of the land was disposed into arbour and bowling greens; tasteful walks were also laid out, and a square was formed and planted upon Blythswood Hill, &c.

6

By the purchase and excambio of the lands of Enoch Bank, the Author opened up St. Vincent Street, George Street, Renfrew Street, Bath Street, and Nile Street. Under the last, arches were formed to fill up the ravine; these were converted into ice-houses, &c., under which St. Enoch's Burn was arched over and made a common sewer. The Author commenced building along several of these streets, which was the origin of what may be called the NEW TOWN.

Previous to the above operations, Blythswood had no access from his lands to the city except by Anderstone Walk, and the Sauchy Hall road, the latter of which was at that time almost impassable.

Having introduced good water, pure milk, and other improvements into the city, the Author was subsequently much importuned by a number of respectable inhabitants to turn his attention to the objectionable practices then prevalent in the baking trade. The bread in Glasgow was at that time considered very inferior to what was sold in many other places. The Author's numerous avocations, however, induced him to resist the proposal for two years; but in 1815, at the instance of several of the bankers and principal inhabitants, he commenced the baking of wheaten bread, the superior quality of which was every where approved, not only in the city, but by those who resided upon the west coast, and at the different places where Glasgow steam-boats were in the habit of plying.

Among the various pursuits in which the Author was at one period engaged, he has often felt that none afforded him so much real gratification as the Dairy, particularly as regarded the comfortable state of the cows, and a cleanly mode of management; and if he had not the veneration of a Hindoo for these animals, their natural docility and public usefulness to mankind often elicited from him a regret that so little attention was in general paid to their comfort; for, next to the vital nourishment supplied by the maternal sources of the human species, the milk of the cow unquestionably deserves to be ranked. The delight which the Author felt in seeing so many lovely groupes of smiling children twice a-day enjoying the delicious regalement at the Willow-bank Dairy, will never be effaced from his memory: the avidity, too, with which the little urchins sought their customary potations, could only be equalled by their frolicsome gambols afterwards.

'Although the Author had never any partner in his numerous concerns, every thing went on prosperously till the Peace of 1814, when the universal depression that ensued upon every species of property, coupled with the heavy losses consequent upon this event, paralysed his exertions, and

produced a revolution in his operations which formed a source of deep regret on many accounts; but especially as regarded the throwing out of employment so many necessitous workmen and faithful servants, (some of whom had been with him nearly twenty years,) and the compulsion that was imposed upon the Author to suspend his aid to several Institutions which he had assisted to establish.

If it be asked how a single individual could project, and properly conduct so many different concerns? it is answered, that it was not from any vain opinion of the competency of his own abilities, but in a judicious division of time and labour, and in the uniform adoption into every department of that comprehensive word system: these may be said to have been the regulating powers of his extensive machinery. The motto, in short, throughout his Establishments was, "Every man at his post and doing his duty."'-pp. xviii—xxviii.

The chief peculiarity of Mr. Harley's dairy, which we had the pleasure of inspecting some years ago, was the confinement of the cows in one large cow-house, without ever permitting them to go into the open air (because he had no convenience for this), and compensating for want of exercise, and of the fresh air of the fields, by cleanliness, combing, brushing, steamed food, and well contrived ventilation. When any of the cows did not thrive under this mode of treatment, they were removed, and if one chanced to manifest a diminished appetite, recourse was had to fasting, kept up till the appetite was deemed to be sufficiently whetted-a prescription highly approved of by the high medical authority of the late Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, and recommended by him to be extended from Harley's cow-house to the merchants of the city, on the same principle as Mr. Abernethy advises his fashionable Metropolitan patients, to take their rules of diet from their horses!!!* The prescription of Dr. Gregory for mercantile indigestion, as given by Mr. Harley, is worthy of being transcribed. The patient we may premise was a rich Glasgow merchant, and a noted drinker of Glasgow punch-which is a compound of rum, lime or lemon juice, sugar, and the coldest water that can be procured.

'The Doctor heard all his symptoms, and then prescribed as follows:-"Prescription:-To get up at six o'clock, A.M., and walk round the public green, or down to Govan (a village about three miles from town), till breakfast time; then to take a crust of bread, or toast, and smell it, but not to taste it; next to go to his ordinary business, taking care to walk again before dinner, as he had done in the morning. At dinner time to take another crust, or piece of toast, and to chew a little of it; but not to swallow even the smallest particle. To go to business again in the afternoon, and finally to go to bed without supper. Next morning to take a similar walk round the green, and then, if inclined to eat, to take a little, very little breakfast. By following this rule," said the Doctor, "and abstaining from Glasgow Punch altogether, I will guarantee that you will very soon regain your appetite."-pp. 79, 80.

See Monthly Review for Sept. 1829.

The panorama of Mr. Harley's cow-house from the exhibition gallery was, we recollect, exceedingly striking and imposing-to behold so many cows in a grand hall, which might for its cleanness and tasteful regularity have served for the dining room of a prince, was a sight which could not fail to attract "lion" hunters, and it accordingly became the leading object of attraction to every stranger, as well as to the citizen. We can testify that the following account by the author is not exaggerated a jot.

The sale of milk now became an extensive and regular object of trade; and in a commercial town, the success and extension of one concern naturally benefit every other. Harley's Milk also became, as it were, the fashion; its unrivalled excellence was the subject of every lady's praise. All the world talked of the Willow-bank Dairy: thousands, impelled by a curiosity which its fame had raised, went to see it; and so charmed, in short, was every one with the order and cleanliness displayed, that many, who had never thought of it before, now became consumers of milk as a part of their daily food.'-p. 8.

The number of visitors whom curiosity drew to the premises was productive of a double evil, that of interrupting the servants, and disturbing the cattle. A remedy, however, soon suggested itself to the proprietor; he immediately gave directions for erecting a balcony in the new cowhouse, from which a bird's eye view of the whole interior of the cowhouse, and its hundred cows, could be obtained at one glance, without producing the slightest annoyance or inconvenience, either to the servants or cattle. In constructing this improvement, the proprietor was induced, for various reasons, to study effect; the chief object, however, was to gratify the numerous spectators, whose frequent visits had now become highly excited. The balcony was, therefore, erected on the outside of the building, opposite to the main passage; it was about four feet above the level of the floor, and open in front to the cow-house, where a large curtain was suspended. Visitors, on their arrival, were requested to insert their names and places of residence, in an album, kept for that purpose. The keeper then, by means of a pulley, drew aside the curtain; when the whole establishment, with its hundred cows, and their attendants, were instantly presented to the view of the delighted and astonished spectators. Princes, noblemen, and gentlemen from almost every quarter of the globe, bore testimony to this interesting panorama. All, indeed, were charmed with the order and arrangement observed in the plan, and uniformly lauded it as unrivalled both in execution and design.

After the balcony had been erected, the Harleian cow-house became, as it were, one of the "lions" of the day. In fact, to visit it occasionally, became the fashion of the town; and the author, to gratify the desire that prevailed, had copper-plate tickets of admission, engraved with a design, symbolical of a woman milking a cow, and groupes of children drinking milk under the Glasgow Arms. These tickets were adapted for the admission of any number, from one to six. The admission was fixed at one shilling each, which actually produced about two hundred pounds per annum. There was, besides, an immense number of private friends of the proprietor, and others, who were introduced to him, who were admitted gratis.

'This celebrated dairy establishment was pleasantly situated to the northwest of the city, upon a rising ground, adjoining the extensive gardens and walks of Willow-bank.

'The rural situation of these walks in the immediate neighbourhood of the city, formed a strong feature of attraction to young persons and children, who, every morning and evening, were in the habit of coming (some from a great distance) to enjoy a delicious regalement of unadulterated milk.

The cow-houses, and the whole premises, were latterly lighted with gas; the large cow-house, from a brass lustre, with four branches, which bung over the centre of the transverse passage. This lighted the house well, and imparted a fine effect when viewed from the balcony.'pp. 33-36.

Into the very full details which the author has given of the minute plans and arrangements of his system we cannot enter, as it would not be possible to bring them into an intelligible abridged form; but we find one very material part of information withheld, namely, money tables of expenditure and income. We are disposed indeed to calculate, that the profits upon his establishment could not be adequate to the capital employed. He bought all his cows in the market at full price, and seldom kept them longer than one season, for when they ceased to give milk they were fattened for sale, and it appears that he generally received for them about the same price as they had originally cost him,consequently the sale of a cow's milk was all he had to balance the interest of his money, together with food, servants' wages, &c. Had the concern indeed been as profitable as the printed details appear imposing, Mr. Harley must have made a large fortune. instead of coming into the Gazette, which we are extremely sorry to record, as the result of his almost matchless enterprises.

There are innumerable facts detailed in other parts of the work, which we would willingly extract if our space permitted, particularly his account of the Dutch dairies, which rival, if they do not out-rival his own in cleanliness-though we cannot too strongly reprobate their practice of deluging the stomachs of their cattle. with the dregs of the gin distilleries. In travelling last August between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, we could not make out the intention of a large clumsy pump, with a long line of troughs to match, adjoining to almost every farm house on the road; but we found upon inquiry, that they were for pumping these gin dregs out of canal boats for the cattle, by which, of course, the milk, butter, and cheese, are sadly deteriorated and poisoned, though the quantities are increased.

One portion of his book however we must find room to notice, namely, his manuring system, of which we think more favourably than any of his other plans; for though similar methods adopted by others take away in part from its originality, it is so very

advantageous and useful, that we cannot too urgently press it upon the attention of those who have any-even the smallest portion of land under cultivation. We prefer giving an extract from this part of the book, to any abridgment of his perspicuous detail.

The high part of the farm was a hard, cold tilled bottom, and scarcely produced any vegetation. The author also acquired from Blythswood that lot of ground called Garnet Hill, a part of which he sold for the Glasgow Observatory; this hill was also a cold barren till. There were no roads through either of these lands; an improvement desirable to be adopted, and to accomplish which the author obtained a quantity of ashes and rubbish from iron-founderies and other public works which he had screened. The coarse parts were excellent materials for making roads. The harped, or screened ashes, sand, &c., were carted to, and laid thick upon, the barren hills. The cow urine was also carted to them in large casks, and emptied upon the highest parts, which ran down toward the bottom; as the highest parts were the barest, the urine being applied to these first, saturated them completely, and such portion as was not retained, descended towards the bottom, or low grounds. Part of the land was trenched with the spade, and the rest ploughed three times as deep as possible; first up and down, second across, then up and down, and forward, into ridges; it afterwards received a good top dressing with lime. The mixture of the sand and ashes with the till, when saturated with urine, produced excellent crops of wheat, barley, turnips, clover, ryegrass, &c.

During the fall in winter or spring, a portion of cow urine was put on, and also some more of the fine rubbish as just described. The weight of the crops that were raised in these high lands was almost incredible.

"There were about five acres of Garnet Hill in front of the Observatory, planted with strawberries of assorted kinds; the ground was prepared as stated above, and the strawberries were planted in rows, which were trenched between every fall or winter. The field was divided into sections; across the hill, and at the top or head of each of these sections there was a small trench made; the cow urine was carted along the top of the field, and by turning the stop-cock the urine ran into the trench at the top of the highest section. A small opening was made between every row of the strawberries to admit the urine which saturated the first section; the remainder then went into the second trench, &c. to the bottom. The highest sections were the poorest; but from their being more richly saturated with the liquid they soon became as fertile as the lowest. The mode of irrigating was then changed, viz. a small cut was made from the top to the bottom of the field, and the urine made to run down that cut and fill each respective trench allowing a larger quantity to the sections that stood most in need of it. This mode produced abundant crops of straw berries, very rich in quality, and, having a southern exposure, most delicious in flavour.

The urine destroyed worms and almost every kind of vermin, and there was little difficulty in applying it, during frost, to hills and inclined planes, and where the ground was flat. The fields were irrigated by attaching rones to the barrels, similar to those used in watering streets.'pp. 219-222.