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portion of lime in powder, viz. about one third, or one-half, about 14 days before I use it. This soil is to be spread about three inches thick at the bottom of any old wooden box, or on a very dry brick cellar floor. The cellar ought not to be exposed to the frost, nor yet too much confined from the air. I then procure a measure or two of large potatoes of a prior year's growth; the sorts I prefer are the red apple potatoe, the pink eyes, or Mr. Curwen's purple potatoes. I set these on the soil whole, about three inches apart, with the crown or the principal eye to the soil in preference, but I put no soil over them. The potatoes which I sent you were produced from potatoes thus placed about the 20th of September, which allows from ten to twelve weeks for their growth; they grew at the bottom of the old potatoes, and were attached to them. The old potatoes also threw out numerous sprouts or stalks, with many potatoes growing on them, but these sprouts were killed by the very intense frost of the present winter (Jan. 1814) and as I found them to damage both the new potatoes and the old sets, I removed them. I have no doubt that these sprouts would have produced a crop of potatoes, if the frost had not damaged them.

"The original potatoes for planting whole, for sets in September, should be such as were of perfect growth in the October of the preceding year, and well preserved during the winter: the sprouts which shoot from them should be removed by the end of April, and these sprouts, which will be from 6 to 20 inches long, may be planted with all their fibres in a garden for a first crop. About June 15th the potatoe sets must be sprit again, and the sprouts planted for a second crop; and in September the potatoe sets must be sprit a third time, and the sprouts of this last produce thrown away as useless. At the end of September the original or seed potatoe is to be gently placed on the soils as beforementioned for a Christinas crop. At the end of three months at farthest the old potatoes should be care fully twisted from the new ones, and the sprouts taken off the old potatoe; and the old potatoe is then to be placed on its bottom or side, on a fresh bed of soil prepared as before, and left to produce another crop from fresh eyes placed next the soil; as you are to observe that the old potatoe should not be set or placed twice on the same side, and you must take care at that time to remove the

(June 1,

sprouts, to prevent the moisture rotting the old potatoe. By the above method I have had four crops of new potatoes from one potatoe, exclusive of those produced from the sprouts planted in the garden in April and June, from which I obtained two crops of well-grown potatoes in September and October, weighing from 8 to 12 ounces each: the crops were very plentiful in proportion to the quantity planted."

The committee observe that they believe no method of raising early potatoes will be found more cheap and easy in management than this; the potatoes are remarkably well flavoured, and may be kept longer without prejudice after gathering, before dressed, than potatoes grown in the natural ground.

Mr. Wм. HOOKEY, master boat-builder at Woolwich dock-yard, who received a gold medal for his improved method of bending timber employed in ship-building, states that by this method a saving of 1500l. will be made in build ing a 74-gun ship, and a general saving to the country of 50,000l. per annum, besides giving a constant supply of tim ber which cannot be otherwise obtained. His machine has been repeatedly tried at Woolwich, and found to answer every intended purpose. On the 2d of May, 1813, he bent the largest piece of timber that ever was bent in England to a 4 ft. 8 inch curve, 30 ft. long and 16 inches square, for a floor-timber for the Black Prince of 74 guns, in eight minutes, which was a saving of 121. in one floortimber. He declares from experience, that Sussex oak is the best in the world for elasticity and durability, and that the produce of the south-west parts of Kent, and north-east of Hampshire, is next in quality:

Mr.WOODALL received the society's sil ver medal for a wind-up bedstead for sick or lame persons, by which their position can be easily altered without occasioning pain or fatigue. It works smoothly without any jerks, and by one rack only, which enables one attendant to raise or depress the bed at pleasure. Mr. Woodall can furnish bedsteads on this construction at the rate of 36s. each, and an old bed may be easily altered to this plan. He can also, if necessary, lower the foot part of the bed by the same movement, so as to make the bed answer the purposes of a chair.

Mr. F. FOLSCH, of Oxford-street, received a gold medal for his method of teaching young persons to read and write; and five guincas were voted to

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Transactions of the Society of Arts.

Mг. THOMAS KEYWORTH, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, for a similar invention. The principle of both is indeed the same; the former employs glass fine greyed or roughened on one side, and the latter tablets of transparent horn, underneath which the copies for writing are placed. Upon the first the letters are traced with a slate pencil, red chalk, steatite, &c., and with a pen and ink upon the second, from which the writing is wiped whilst still wet.

Mr. T. BOYCE describes his invention of a life-boat, or safety-buoy, for which the silver medal and ten guineas were voted to him, as follows:-" It may be inade of wooden laths, nailed upon circular wooden frames, forming two cylinders with a pointed end. These frames are secured together with bars extending across through both cylinders. Upon the outside of the cylinders should be placed a coat of linen or cotton cloth, secured with water-proof size or cement, over which two or three layers of brown pitched paper, well cemented, should be laid; over that another layer or coat of linen or cotton cloth should be cemented; and lastly, a covering of strong canvas, well secured, cemented, and painted. This boat is so contrived that it is immaterial which side lies uppermost in the water, as both sides are separately supplied with a similar set of masts, spritsail, and rigging, feady for setting up, and when the boat is cut away from the part of the ship where it hangs ready for use, the man fallen overboard, when he gets upon it, can boist that mast and sail which lies uppermost, and follow the ship with nearly equal speed. The paddle answers the purpose of a rudder to steer by, and one only is necessary, as it can be easily drawn out whichever side is uppermost. The proper length of the boat is about 9 feet; the diameter of the cylinder 12 inches, and the width of the grating between them 12 inches; the length of each mast 9 feet, with sails and sprits in proportion. The weight of the whole is about 180 lbs.; the price about 10 guineas; and it will carry 250 lbs. weight, with the grating clear of the water. The size, or cement, for uniting and covering the apparatus, should be made from equal weights of mastic, incense, rosin, and fine-cut cotton or cowhair: these are to be melted together with some powdered calcined oystershells, and all mixed while boiling into a strong mass, which grows harder the longer it lies in water. Where calcined oyster-shells cannot be got, quick-lime

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will answer as a substitute. Besides the saving of the lives of persons who fall overboard, this boat has the advantage of being able to carry a person safe to land where no other boat could venture, and convey a rope or dispatches on shore that would be the means of preserving both ship and crew in cases of emergency."

Mr. THOMAS CLEGHORN gives a description of a buoyant line, designed for the same useful purpose as the preceding invention. It consists of hempen webbing, or flaxen inkle, with a heart of cork sufficient to make it float in water. He proposes that it should be from 100 to 400 yards long, wound round a reel permanently fixed at the ship's stern, within reach of the man at the helm. To the end of this line is attached a wooden float, ballasted so as to carry a vane to show the direction and extent of line when in the water.

Mr. JOHN MILLER, of Bedford, has submitted to the society a method of saving persons from drowning when the ice breaks under them. Its simplicity, and capability of universal application, strongly recoinmend it to notice. The apparatus consists of two poles, each 20 feet long, cut out of a two-inch deal plank. A leather strap, to buckle long enough to go over a person's shoulder, is fixed to one of them. The person using it grasps this pole with one of his arins, and there fixes it by means of the strap going over his opposite shoulder. The other pole, to one end of which a cord is fastened, he carries in his hand, for the purpose of conveying it to the person in distress, and which, by means of the cord, he is enabled to do at a considerable distance. Should a greater degree of buoyancy than the pole itself possesses be deemed requisite, it might be produced by a small quantity of cork, fastened either to the middle or ends.

Mr. H. E. SIEVERS, of Lower Thamesstreet, had a gold medal awarded him, for the communication of his method of curing herrings caught in the British seas in the Dutch manner. This gentleman has been employed in curing herrings upwards of 20 years, twelve of which he passed in Holland. For the last four years he has annually exported from 3 to 4,000 barrels of herrings of this cure to the Continent, and small quantities actually to Amsterdam, besides large orders for the West Indies; the whole of the fish being caught by vessels sent to sea on his account, and cured under his

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direction. The method pursued is as follows:-As soon as the fish are taken, they are gutted, and afterwards sprinkled with salt in their own blood, in large square, round, or oval tubs, about a foot and a half deep, where the fish are well stirred together, that the salt may take equal effect. The barrels must be ready to use instantaneously for packing with salt, four barrels of which are used to 14 barrels (a last) of fish. They are then headed up, and placed in the ship's hold: in about four or five days they are opened for filling up, and care must be taken to keep them in this state, other wise they will become rancid or rusty, On being brought into port, they are repacked as occasion may require, in packages suitable to the market for which they are destined. For home consumption and the Baltic trade, they merely require to be filled; but for the West Indies they must be repacked in small kegs, of about one gallon each, with the addition of two pounds of salt to each keg.

On a minute examination of the herrings produced to the committee, it appeared, that those caught in the deep sea off Shetland, were fatter and fuller of milts and roes than those caught on the coast of Yarmouth. Mr. Sievers stated, that herrings are generally known under the denominations of the St. Michael's, the Highland, and the longshotten herring; and that the deep-sea fishing is carried on in sloops, each carrying ten or twelve hands. These are obliged to go to Shetland to clear out according to act of parliament, about the 16th of June, and have then to return to commence the fishery at Buchan Ness off Peterhead, on the 24th of June, and thus suffer great disadvantages, by delays from wind and weather, in an unnecessary voyage of 300 miles. The herrings caught in the deep sea off Buchan Ness are large, fat, and full-belbed; they are also richer in flavour, and more esteemed for home consumption and for the Continent, but do not keep so well as the lanker fish caught near Yarmouth, which last are better calculated for the West India markets. The fishery there is carried on in September and October, as the herrings come down the German Ocean.

Mr. PHILLIPS LONDON has communicated a process for curing herrings, pilchards, mackarel, sprats, &c. which may

[June 1,

become of extensive utility, by preserv ing large quantities of these various kinds of fish for food, which might otherwise be wasted in very abundant seasons. This is sufficiently evident from the fact, that in January, 1814, sprats pickled by this method were selling to the poor of Spitalfields at the rate of one penny per pound. In the same year upwards of 25,000 mackarel, 300 barrels of herrings, and 50 of sprats, were cured at Ramsgate by this process, which is as follows:→

Reservoirs of any size, vats, or casks, perfectly water-tight, should be about half filled with brine, made by dissolving about 28 parts of solid salt in 72 of fresh water. The fish, as fresh as possible, gutted or not, must be plunged into this fully saturated brine in such quantity as nearly to fill the reservoir, and after remaining quite immersed five or six days, they will be fit to be packed as usual with large grained solid salt, and exported to the hottest climates. As brine is always weakest at the upper part, in order to keep it of a uniform saturation a wooden lattice-work frame, of such size as to be easily let into the inside of the reservoir, is sunk an inch or two under the surface of the brine, for the purpose of suspending upon it lumps of one or two pounds, or larger, of solid salt, which effectually saturate whatever moisture may exude from the fish, and thus the brine will be continued of the utmost strength so long as any part of the lumps remains undissolved. The solidity of the lumps admits of their being applied several times, or whenever the reservoirs are replenished with fish; and the brine, although repeatedly used, does not putrefy; nor do the fish, if kept under the surface, ever become rancid.

Mr. London adds, that all provisions are best preserved by this method, especially bacon, which, when thus cured, is not so liable to become rusty, as when done by the usual method of rubbing with salt, and is nevertheless effectually cured.

In this volume a deserved tribute of respect is paid to the late Sir WILLIAM DOLBEN, who was a member of the society from the year 1759, and a zealous promoter of the arts, manufactures, and commerce, of his country. Prefixed to it is a portrait of him, engraved by Warren, from a picture by Brown in the Hall of Christchurch, Oxford.

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We were for some time at a loss in what light to consider this curious tract, whether as a design to banter the reader by an affected explanation of craniology, or as the real exposition of the author's acquiescence in that doctrine. It seems, however, that Mr. Forster is a sincere believer in the wonderful discovery, that all the faculties of man, both intellectual and moral, are dependant on the peculiar conformation of his skull; and with this conviction, he recommends the study very ear. nestly as necessary to tutors and jurists. Henceforth, therefore, much time may be spared in education by examining the outside of childrens' heads in order to determine what is best adapted for their internal improvement; and when a criminal appears at the bar, the labour of sifting evidence may be dispensed with by a professional investiga tion of the organs which lead those unhappy persons who have them most prominently to robbery and murder, or as they are here quaintly denomi nated, "covetiveness" and "destructiveness." ARTS, FINE.

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[June 1,

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and to the account of the misfortunes of Dionysius is added a catalogue of princes who have been obliged to wander in foreigu lands. The murders of Agis of Sparta, Charles I. of England, and Louis XVI. of France, occupy a long and eloquent chapter; and the work ends by a short investigation of the influence of the Reformation, and the doctrines of the philosophers under Louis XV. upon the French revolution.

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