sowing the red beet. It may be sown as early as you please in spring, or even in autumn; for the first leaves which in most other plants are very tender, are able to stand the cold winds of spring. No insect can hurt them; and while the turnip, the turnip cabbage, the cabbage, &c. are destroyed by the leaffice, the red beet grows astonishingly and when in autumn the leaves of those plants are devoured by caterpillars, none are seen on the red beet." The only enemies it has, that I know of, are fowls; for these are so fond of its leaves, as entirely to lay waste the fields of it, to which they can have access. Their appetite for this plant, when they once have discovered it in a field or garden, is such, that it is almost impossible to keep them out. They should not be sown therefore in gardens or fields too near houses, as in this case the crop may be looked upon as lost. The following is the method I have adopted of cultivating it. I first select, if possible, a good black mould, rather rich. If it be mixed with a little sand, and provided it has not too much clay, it is good for the beet, which always requires a little moisture. It may be cultivated indeed on light ground, but not with equal suc cess. : " land can be worked, I sow the seed where the plants are to remain; for experience has taught me, that transplanting them is injurious. They should not be sown too thick there should be at least six inches distance between the plants; and it is often necessary to pull up some in the thickest places, for three or four plants frequently spring from a single seed. : It is usual to cover the seed by raking or harrowing but as from their lightness they frequently lie on the surface and rot, it is better to use the hoe, or the plough, taking care not to bury them too deep. In this way we may be certain of their germinating quickly, if the soil be good. As soon as the plants have their sixth leaf, they should be weeded, and thinned out where too close. A few weeks after they should be hoed, but so as rather to draw the earth from them than to heap it round them. When the leaves begin to bend down to the ground, the largest, at the bottom of the plant, may be gathered for the cattle: but they must not be stripped too much, as this would injure the root. Nor should the leaves be plucked off before they separate as it were of themselves, inclining toward the ground. If weeds appear again, or the ground get hard and dry, they should be hoed a second time. Lastly, in the month of October the roots should be taken up, and laid in the places intended for keeping them, first cutting off the stalk close to the root, that they may not vegetate during the winter. SOME SOME REMARKS ON PRUNING AND By Mr. John Maher, F. H. S. We often see apple and pear trees, both in gardens and orchards, not only crowded too closely toge ther, but so loaded with their own branches, that very little fruit is produced; and that which is produced is rendered greatly interior in size and flavour to what it would be under different manage ment. Directions for pruning these, as well as all other fruit-trees, have already been published by various experienced gardeners, nor is it my present intention to offer any instructions on this head; but necessity, which has been so justly called the mother of invention, having impelled me to try a method that I have not seen practised by any other person, and which has proved uncommonly successful, a short detail of it may perhaps be deemed not unworthy the attention of the Horticultural Society. When first I came to Millfield, I found a number of apple and pear trees, not only planted too closely, but left entirely to their natural manner of growing, and exceedingly shaded by a row of high trees in the hedge, which separates them from the pleasure ground. Other business to be done, of more importance, prevented me from pruning the whole immediately; but a number were selected the first season, and many of their largest oranches taken entirely out from the bottom, cutting the wounds very clean. The remain ing branches were also properly. thinned, so as to leave room for the air and light to play upon the smallest branches. The following summer, the trees, as might have been expected, shoots pushed from those pruned as the French call gourmands, often were uncommonly vigorous, such from three to five feet ong, or more. About the end of June, or a little sooner and later, according applied oval bails of gr: fiing clay to the growth of the branches, I towards their extremi y, suthciently heavy to incline them downThe sap bring thus diverted from wards in a pendulous direction. its natural mode of ascending and descending, every bud almost beral trees this disposition to pro-, caine a blossom bud, and in se veduce bios-om buds was carried down to the very lowest spurs on the stem and thicker branches. I need not add, that this practice has since been closely followed sive of a more certain crop of fruit, up; for many advantages, excluattend it. 1st Other small vegeted under the light shade of trees tables may be successfully cultivakept so open, an object of imporwhere ground is so difficult to be tance in the villages near London, got: 2dly, No expense of espalier, or of stakes, or of training and tying down the branches is incurred: 3dly, The crop of fruit is vour by having so much sun and not only improved in size and flaair, but, it is more easily gathered, and suffers much less from the autumnal winds; for branches in this direction are more pliable, and bend more easily to the storm; and as a proot how much may be done by art if necessary, the branches of a Lom a Lombardy poplar accidentally left in my master's orchard, after being loaded with clay balls, became as pendulous as those of the weeping willow. I have only to add, that most of the specimens of apples and pears produced at our meeting in November and December last by me, and honoured with the encomiums of some of the best judg s present, grew upon trees kept low and open in this method. HERRINGS CURED IN THE DUTCH In the deep sea (which is the principal fishery for herrings) the nets are cast from the busses by sunset, and they drive by them alone expecting the shoals, the approach of which is generally indi. cated by small quantities of fish; and their arrival by immense flights of sea fowl. The best fishing is with the wind off shore, for, when it blows in a contrary direction, the shoals are broken and dispersed, and the fishery is seldom successful while it continues in that point. Immediately after the nets are hauled in, (which is often performed with considerable difficulty, by means of a windlass when they are full) the crew begin to gyp the fish, that is, to cut out the gill, which is followed by the float or swim, and divide the large jugular or spiral vein with a knife at the same time, endeavouring to waste as little of the blood as possible ;at this work the men are so ex pert, that some will gyp fifty in a minute. Immediately after they are gyp ped, they are put into barrels, commencing with a layer of salt at the bottom, then a tier of fish, each side by side, back downwards, the tail of one touching the head of the other, next a layer of salt, and so alternately until the barrel is filled :-they are thus left, and the blood which issues from the fish, by dissolving the salt, forms a pickle infinitely superior to any other that can be made. The herrings thus drained of their blood occupy less space, and the whole consequently sinks about one third down the barrel, but this sinking is at an end in about three or four days. When these operations are being performed, the sea is often running mountains high; and it is not therefore to be supposed, that the barrels are so well coopered as not sometimes to allow the pickle to leak out; and in order to preserve the fish from being spoiled, which would otherwise happen in such cases, some of the gills and entrails are always put by in barrels with salt, in the same manner as the herrings, and yield a pickle of the same quality; with this pickle those barrels which have leaked are replenished, and the fish sustains no injury. Every operation is performed in the shade, into which the fish are immediately conveyed on their being hauled on board. Each day's fishing is kept separate with the greatest care. The salt used is mixed, and of three different sorts, viz. English, St. Ubes, and Alicant, and each barrel marked with the day of the month on it on which it was filled. The The advantages of gypping the herrings are, that the blood, which issues in consequence of the operation from the fish, yields a natural pickle, and improves the flavour; whereas, if left in the fish, it becomes coagulated at the backbone, and forms the first cause of decay. The mixture of blood and salt operated upon by the extreme heat of the weather during the summer fisheries produces a fermentation which nearly parboils the herrings, and removes the coarse and raw flavour so often complained of. The gypping is likewise often performed on shore, observing the same precautions; the only difference is, that they are seldom in that case of so good a colour. Gypped herrings are never of so fine a quality as when kept in their own original pickle; their value consists in their softness and flavour; it is this mode of curing herrings that used to be the pride of the Dutch, and this is the kind which supplied their home consumption, and were so much esteemed by all classes of people in Holland. In order, as far as it is possible, to give a proof of the correctness of the above assertion, I shall state a fact for the information of the Society. During the last year I employed a number of Dutch fishermen, prisoners, and others, with Englishmen, in gypping and curing herrings; and at one time my agent at Yarmouth was offered 41. per barrel, for all the herrings he had cured there, by a Dutch captain, in order to their being taken to Holland, while ungypped herrings were worth only 36s. per barrel. The herrings now under the consideration of your Society are part of the quantity for which this offer was made. Should the Society, after due consideration, think proper to adjudge me their gold medal, it will afford me much satisfaction, and convince me, that my exertions have, in some degree, been beneficial to the community. 507 MISCELLANIES. Some Particulars respecting the arith- London, Aug. 20, 1812. attracted by the most singular phanomenon in the history of the human mind that perhaps ever existed. It is the case of a child, under eight years of age, who, without any previous knowledge of the common rules of arithmetic, or even of the use and power of the Arabic numerals, and without having given any particular attention to the subject, possesses (as if by intuition) the singular faculty of solving a great variety of arithmetical questions by the mere optration of the mind, and without the usual assistance of any visible symbol or contrivance. ed the attention and excited the astonishment of every person whe has witnessed his extraordinary abilities. The discovery was made by accident. His father, who had not given him any other instruction than such as was to be obtain that unfrequented and remote part of the country, (and which did not include either writing or cyphering,) was much surprised one day to hear him repeating the products of several numbers Struck with amazement at the circumstance, he proposed a variety of arithmetical questions to him. all of which the child solved with remarkable facility and correctness. The news of this infant prodigy soon circulated through the neighbourhood; and many persons came from distant parts to witness so singular a circumstance. The father, encouraged by the unanimous opinion of The name of the child is Zerah all who came to see him, was inColburn, who was born at Cabut duced to undertake, with this (a town lying at the head of Onion child, the tour of the United river, in Vermont, in the United States. They were every where States of America), on the 1st of received with the most flattering September, 1804. About two expressions; and in the several years ago (August, 1810), al- towns which they visited, various though at that time not six years plans were suggested to educate of age, he first began to show those and bring up the child, free from wonderful powers of calculation all expense to his family. Yieldwhich have since so much attracting, however, to the pressing soli citations |