the forwing of Wheat: By W. Watfon, M. D. F. R.S. [Read Nov. 24, 1768,] To the Royal Society. Gentlemen, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, HAVING been informed, been informed, that in the botanic garden at Cambridge, there had been produced, by the ingenuity and care of Mr. Charles Miller, the gar dener there, from one grain of wheat only, in little more than a year, a much more confiderable. quantity of grain, than was ever attempted, or even conjectured to bé poffible; I have defired him to fend me a particular account thereof, in order to its being communicated to you; and, if the council fhould think proper, of its being recorded in the Philofophical Tranf actions, as I think it highly deferves. In my opinion, a fact fo extraordinary should not be forgotten; as it may poffibly be ap. plied, in no inconfiderable degree, to public utility: if it fhould not, the experiment itfelf, fo fuccefsfully conducted, is a defirable thing to be known. the divifion and tranfplantation of wheat, by which near two thousand ears were produced from a fingle grain; and he having reafon to think, from the fuccefs attending this experiment, that a much greater quantity might be produced, he de-. termined to repeat the experiment next year. Accordingly, on the fecond of June, 1766, he fowed fome grains of the common red wheat; and, on the eighth of Auguft, which was as foon as the plants were ftrong enough to admit of a divifion, a fingle plant was taken up, and was feparated into eighteen parts. Each of thefe parts was planted again feparately. Thefe plants having pufhed out having pushed out feveral fide fhoots by about the middle of September, fome of them were then taken up, and divided; and the rest of them between that time and the middle of October. This fe cond divifion produced fixty-feven plants. Thefe plants remained through the winter; and another divifion of them, made between the middle of March and the twelfth of April, produced five hundred plants. They were then divided no further, but permitted to remain. The plants were, in general, ftronger than any of the wheat in the fields. Some of them produced. upwards of an hundred ears from a fingle root: Many of the ears mea fured feven inches in length, and contained between fixty and feventy grains. The whole number of ears, which by the procefs before-mentioned were produced from one grain of wheat, was twenty-one thousand one hundred and nine, which yielded three packs and three quarters of of clear corn; the weight of which fpring. The fuccefs of this experiment they propofe to tranfmit to me, when it is completed; and of this, in due time, I shall not fail to inform you. I am, was forty-feven pounds, feven ounces; and, from a calculation made by counting the number of grains in one ounce, the whole number of grains might be about five hundred and feventy-fix thoufand eight hundred and forty. By this account we find, that there was only one general divifion of the plants made in the fpring. Had a fecond been made, the number of plants, Mr. Miller thinks, would have amounted, at leaft, to two thoufand, inftead of five hundred; and the produce have been much enlarged. For he found by the experiment made the preceding year, in which the plants were divided twice in the fpring, that they were not weakened by the fecond divifion. He mentions this to fhew, that the experiment was not pushed to the utmost. The ground, in which this experiment was made, is a light blackifh foil, upon a gravelly bottom, and confequently a bad foil for wheat. One half of the ground was very much dunged; the other half was not prepared with dung, or any other manure : no difference was, however, difcoverable in the vigour or growth of the plants, nor was there any in their produce. Mr. Miller adds, that he omits making any conjectures of the probability of turning this experiment to public utility in agriculture; as that, he hopes, may be better af certained by a more extenfive one, which he hopes to make next year. A gentleman, who aflifted him in making the experiment laft year, has fown half an acre of land with wheat, from which they expect to have fufficient to plant four acres next VOL. XII. Gentlemen, Your most obedient W. WATSON. [Received Nov. 21, 1768.] An eafy Method of making a Phofphorus, that will imbibe and emit Light, like the Bolognian Stone; with Experiments and Obfervations; by John Canton. M. A. and F.R.S. To make the PHOSPHORUS. CAL [Read Dec. 22, 178.] ALCINE fome common oyfter fhells, by keeping them in a good coal fire for half an hour; let the pureft part of the calx be pulverized, and fifted; mix with three parts of this pow der one part of the flowers of fulphur: let this mixture be rammed into a crucible of about an inch and a half in depth, till it be almoft full; and let it be placed in the middle of the fire, where it must be kept red hot for one hour at least, and then fet by to cool: when cold, turn it out of the crucible, and cutting, or breaking it to pieces, fcrape off, upon trial, the brighteft parts; which, if good phofphorus, will be a white powder; and may be preferved by keeping it in a dry phial with a ground ftopple. The The quantity of light a little of this phofphorous gives, when firft brought into a dark room, after it has been expofed for a few feconds, on the outfide of a window, to the common light of the day, is fufficient to difcover the time by a watch, if the eyes have been thut, or in the dark, for two or three minutes before. By this phofphorus celeftial objects may be very well reprefented; as Saturn and his ring, the phafes of the moon, &c. if the figures of them, made of wood, be wetted with the white of an egg, and then covered with the phofphoAnd thefe figures appear to be as ftrongly illuminated in the night, by the flash from a near difcharge of an electrified bottle, as by the light of the day. rus. A method of preferving the bodies of birds from putrefaction, by fill. ing the cavity of the thorax and abdomen with a mixture of falt and allum, after the inteftines, &c. had been firft extracted, and alfo by making incifions in different parts of its body, and filling them with the fame mixture, was fome time fince published in one of the monthly magazines; and the author, if I miftake not, thought it an important difcovery, which, it feems, he obtained in Paris, tho' not without great difficulty, The method of doing this in Guiana, is to put the bird, which is to be preferved, in a proper veffel, and cover him with high wines, or the first running of the diftillation of rum. In this fpirit he is fuffered to remain for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, or longer, according to his fize, till it has penetrated through every part of his body. When this is done, the bird is taken out, and his feathers, which are no ways changed by this immerfion, are placed Imooth and regular. He is then put into a machine, made for the purpose, among a number of others, and its head, feet, wings, tail, &c. are placed exactly agreeable to life. In this pofition they are all placed in an oven, very moderately heated, where they are flowly dried, and will ever after rerain their natural pofition, without danger of putrefaction. This method might perhaps in England be deemed expenfive, as the great duty on fpirits has ralfed their price to an enormous height; but in a country where rum is fold for ten-pence fterling per gallon, the cafe is far different, Methad Method of preferving Snakes; from the fame. years ago difcovered infects, or vermin, to be the true caufe of fmut, and withal how they pro WHEN the fnake is killed, pagate their fpecies from one ge it must first be washed clean, and freed from all filth and natinefs; then it is to be put into a glafs of a pro, er fize, the tail firft, and afterwards the reft of the body, winding it in fpiral afcending circles, and difpofing the back, which is always the most beautiful, outwardly. A thread, connected to a final glafs bead, is, by the help of a needle, to be paffed thro' the upper jaw from within outwardly, and then thro' the cork of the bottle, where it must be fastened: by this means the head will be drawn into a natural posture, and the mouth kept open by the bead, whereby the teeth, &c. will be dif. covered: the glafs is then to be filled with rum, and the cork fealed down, to prevent its exhalation. A label, containing the name and properties of the fnake, is then to be affixed to the wax over the cork; and in this manner the fnake will make a beautiful appearance, and may be thus preferved a great number of years; nor will the fpirits impair or change the luftre of its colours. PRESUME nothing more need be faid here relating to the caufe of fmut; and therefore I pafs on to the cure. Having about thirty neration to another, whereby our Put into a tub, with a hole at bottom, wherein a staff and taphole is to be placed (as in the manner of brewing) feventy gallons of water; to this we put half a hundred weight of ftone-lime, which in measure is found to be a corn bufhel heap full; ftir it well for about half an hour, then let it ftand for about thirty hours:-run it off into another tub, wherein the grain is to be fteeped; which generally produces about a hogshead of good lime-water; to this we add three pecks of falt (forty two pound) which, when diffolved, is fit for ufe, and this I call a pickle. -But in cafe fea-water can be ob tained, much less falt will foffice: the rule is, to have the fpecific gravity fufficient to float an egg, by adding falt fufficient for this purpofe: herein, with a basket made on purpofe (which for a large farm ought to be two feet diameter at I 2 bottom, bottom, and twenty inches deep) placed in the pickle, we run in the grain gradually in fmall quantities, From one bufhel to two; ftirring and fkimming off the light grains, which ought not to be fown, because many of them are infectious; this done, draw up the basket to drain over the pickle for a few minutes, and fo proceed in like manner. This feed will be fit for fowing in twenty-four hours; but for drilling, forty-eight are better. Should the driller meet with any difficulty herein, more lime muft be added to make the pickle more aftringent; for lime differs much in quality here the mafter must ufe his own difcretion. In cafe the feed is made ready for fowing or drilling five, fix, feven, eight, or ten days before-hand, I know no difference at all: I have had it lay much longer without the leaft injury, or inconveniency. And now, upon the whole, I think, Sir, we may, without vanity, pronounce this a great point gained to the land-holder; if the faving of a confiderable part of our corn from deftruction be things of Thefe are my fentiments, and I trust they will merit your approbation.-I am glad to hear my last met with fuch a kind reception from the Society. any value. A Letter to the Editors of the Repofitory, on the Ufes of the Horfe. Chefnut. Gentlemen, T HE Society for the Encou ragement of Arts, &c. in London, having in their advertise. ment concerning hemp, required an account of the farther process it went through to procure that degree of whitenefs, which may fhorten the time, and leffen the expence of bleaching the yarn, I think it will be very proper again to put my countrymen in mind, that one of the chief articles, viz. the Horfe-chefnut, employed for this purpofe in France and Swifferland, abounds plentifully in many parts of this kingdom, though it has never yet been ufed here for this end; at least no fuch account of its ufe has hitherto been published. I therefore beg leave now to give you, from the Memoirs of the most laudable Society of Berne, tom. II. part 2, another article on this fubject, as the nut may be used to ad. vantage for whitening of hemp and flax, in the preparation of each during the enfuing autumn. The Horfe-chefnut tree was formerly much ufed in forming of ave nues, and alleys, on account of the ftraightnefs of its ftem, its thick fhade, and the beauty of its pyra midal flowers; but it is now fallen into neglect. I will, however, dare to pronounce, that if its beauty ftruck our forefathers, its intrinfic value well deferves our attention. As it is found to thrive well in this country, it gives me pleasure to re commend to a more general cul ture, a tree which promises to be of fo |