t » 1 



It is likewife worth noting, that a row of the potatoes 

 which grew befide thefc, having been taken up by itfelf, 

 and the bulbs cleaned, was found to weigh 23 pounds. 

 Thefe were from feed cut in the ordinary random way. 



§. II. 



As the foregoing experiment feemed to point to- 

 wards an important difcovery with regard to the 

 culture of this valuable plant, I refolved to repeat 

 it next feafon with dill greater accuracy, which was 

 accordingly done as under. 



Experiment Second. 



In the month of April, 1777, a piece of ground was 

 prepared for the experiment. This had been in grafs 

 fome years, and now got a flight kind of trenching barely 

 to cover the fward, without any dung. It was found that 

 this fmall piece of ground could contain exactly twenty 

 plants in length, at fixteen inches from each other ; and 

 it was divided into rows croffing thefe at right angles, at 

 the diftance of fixteen inches from each other alfo ; fo that 

 the plants ftood in fquare fixteen inches from one another, 

 in every direction. The fbil of this patch was thin and 

 poor, infomuch, that when in grafs, the crop was fo fcanty 

 as fcarcely to admit of being cut with the fcythe ; but no 

 dung was put upon it, on account of the difficulty of 

 fprcading it fo equally as not to affect the accuracy of the 

 experiment. 



On the 5th of May, twenty plants of each of the fol- 

 lowing kinds were provided and planted, each kind by »t- 

 fclf, in afingle row; all the plants in each row being, as 

 nearly as poflible, of one fize. A row of potatoes cut pro- 



mifcuoufly 



