glanced at in the progress of the conversations. How much more profitable
are such family recreations than sitting hours over spotted pieces of
paper, counting the pips of dice, or simpering over fashionable novels
and tales of scandal run mad. Bookish families are usually the happiest,
at least if we rightly estimate the term. In an early number we shall
endeavour to find some portion of these "Conversations" for our columns.


"_Arcana of Science for_ 1829."

This work will appear early in January. It will be on the same plan as
the volume of last year, and will contain at least _thirty engravings_,
on copper and wood. The _mechanical_ department is unusually copious, and
there are some abstracts in the _chemical_, which are of high value.


_Rice_.

Trials have recently been made to grow the dry rice of China in Italy;
and it is expected that in time an advantageous cultivation of it may be
introduced in France.


_Turf_.

A correspondent of a French work on gardening thinks that green turf may
be obtained in France by trenching the ground, freeing it from stones,
covering the surface with two or three inches of rich compost, and then
laying on the turf. The improved soil, he thinks, will retain moisture
sufficient to keep the turf growing all the summer, and, consequently,