to the strawberry-bed, and a runner placed in the centre of each, with a small stone to keep it steady.  They were watered in dry weather, and have had no other care or culture.  For two or three years, I have had the very finest crops from plants after this method, and those under notice promise well.  If the pots are lifted, it will be apparent that a large quantity of food is in a small space.  I may add, that from some recent experiments with compressed earth to potted fruit-trees, I have a high opinion of its effect, and I fully believe that we have yet much to learn on the subject.’

There is a committee sitting at the Admiralty, to devise a method for the uniform lighting of ships and steamers at night, the object being to diminish the chances of accident or error to vessels at sea.  And apropos of this, Mr Babbage has published a plan which will effectually prevent one lighthouse being mistaken for another:  it is, that every lighthouse, wherever situated, shall have a number—­the numbers not to run consecutively—­and no two adjoining lights to have the same numeral digits in the same place of figures.  There would then be no need for revolving or flashing lights, as the only thing to be done would be to make each lighthouse repeat its own number all night long, or whenever it was illuminated.  This is to be ’accomplished by enclosing the upper part of the glass cylinders of the argand burner by a thin tube of tin or brass, which, when made to descend slowly before the flame, and then allowed suddenly to start back, will cause an occultation and reappearance of the light.’  The number of occultations denotes the number of the lighthouse.  For instance, suppose the Eddystone to be 243, the two is denoted by two hidings of the light in quick succession; a short pause, and four hidings; another short pause, and three hidings, followed by a longer pause; after which the same process is repeated.  It would not be easy to make a mistake, for the numbers of the lighthouses nearest to the Eddystone would be very different; and supposing that the boy sent aloft to watch for the light were to report 253 instead of 243, without waiting to correct his view, the captain, by turning to his book, would perhaps find that No. 253 was in the Straits of Sunda, or some equally remote situation, and would easily recognise the error.  When we take into account the number of vessels lost by mistaking one lighthouse for another, the value of this proposal becomes apparent.  Mr Babbage shews, that bell-strokes might be employed to announce the number of a beacon in foggy weather; and he believes that the time is not far distant when buoys will also be indicated by a light.  Now that lighthouse dues are to be reduced one-half, we may hope to see improvement in more ways than one.