After a certain age, they are allowed their liberty, living chiefly on steamed potatoes, and being situated tolerably secure from the depredations of men and foxes, are permitted to roost in trees near the house. According to your request, I herewith send you a rough Apparatus sketch of the apparatus I use, which probably will convey an idea of the business, and not be too complicated for persons employed in poultry yards, fully to understand; but to prevent trouble and prejudice in the first onset, I think it necessary to remark, that if the chickens do not readily run under the artificial mother for want of some educated ones to teach them, it will be proper to have the curtain in front made of rabbit or hare skin, with the fur side outwards, for the warmth and comfort to attract them, afterwards they run under the flannel ones, which are preferable for common use, on account of cleanliness, and not being liable to get into the mouths of the chickens. I have had great amusement in rearing poultry in the above way, and if my time was not occupied with my chil dren and other family concerns, I should most assuredly farm very largely in poultry. Reference to the Engravings of Mrs. D'Oyley's Method of breeding Poultry, Plate X, Fig. 5, 6, 7. Fig. 5. The apparatus called the artificial mother, with described. a curtain of green baize in front and at each end, and holes through the top to allow the circulation of air. Fig. 6. Another view of the artificial mother, but without the curtain, in order to show its sloping direction, and interior lining of woolly sheep-skin. Fig. 7. A wicker basket four feet long, two feet broad, and fourteen inches high, with a lid to open, and a wooden sliding bottom similar to a bird cage: the artificial mother is shown, as placed within it. O. A trough in front to hold food for the chickens. Remark. As the cheapness with which fowls can be reared in this way is an object of primary consideration, it is to be regretted, that Mrs. D'Oyley has not added an account of the the quantity of food consumed by a certain number of chickens in a given time; as on this must depend the price at which they could be sold, and the profit that might be made of them. This would have been attended with another advantage, it would have been a guide with respect to the quantity of the different kinds of food, with which the chickens ought to be supplied in the several stages of their growth, to those who have not been in the habit of rearing poultry; and this must necessarily be the case with many persons in the vicinity of London in particular, to whom the adoption of Mrs. D'Oyley's plan might be very desirable. Mrs. D'Oyley does not say whether the turkeys she mentions were reared in the same way. Plants above 100 acres a year. Trees should be very sparing ly pruned. Oaks. Larch wood handsome. VIII. Communication from the Right Hon. the EARL OF FIFE, relative to his Plantations*. I SIR, request you will lay this letter before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. as I feel it my duty to con vey any information to them, respecting my plantations, from the grateful sense of the honour they have done me. I have continued every year, since I last wrote to the Society, to plant above one hundred acres: my plantations now, in the counties of Banff, Aberdeen, and Murray, amount to about thirteen thousand acres. I have always recommended to planters to be very sparing in pruning trees. I have the pleasure to observe, that on the highest grounds in Duff-House Park, even where exposed to the sea, by cutting down firs and other trees, where they interfere with each other, the oaks and other close-grained timber trees rise vigorous and healthy, and will be very valuable, the oaks in particular. The silver fir and larch also grow to a great size. I was under the necessity of cutting down two silver firs and larches, where they prevented the growth of other trees; I directed them to be sawed up-The boards of the larch have been made into tables, and are *Trans. of the Society of Arts for 1807, p. 1, very very handsome. Those of the silver fir have been used as Silver fir Par a silver fir at 50 years. There was a very high wind the 25th of December last, Dimensions of which blew down a great many trees upon my estate. ticularly a silver fir in the woods on the low grounds near Duff-House, which appeared to be well sheltered. It was planted by me in the year 1756, and had a most venerable appearance. The dimensions were as follow, as attested to me, viz. Length of the trunk from the surface of the ground, until divided in five limbs Girth at surface of ground Girth immediately below where the limbs set off The five limbs are all of the same height, except No. 1, which divides into two branches before it reaches the top. These are only a few inches shorter than the others, which are 42 feet 6 inches from where they leave the trunk, the length of which is 7 feet, therefore, when added together, the height of the tree, is No. 1. Measure of girth where it sets off from the trunk 5 3 The tree alluded to has a great deal of wood in it, which |