That the nature of the fubftance from which * 

 plant is to be produced, fhould have Jome influence 

 on the future vigour of that plant, feems not un- 

 reafonable to fuppofe j yet I believe that even the 

 warmcft imagination could hardly induce one to 

 fufpecl: a priori, that fuch an extraordinary degree of 

 vigour could be communicated, merely by an in- 

 creafe in the quantity of matter contained in the feed. 

 To me, this circumftance appeared the more fur- 

 prifing, as the refult was extremely different from 

 what I had found by fome former experiments was 

 produced by plump and lean grain employed as 

 feed. The experiment was as follows : 



Experiment Fourth. 



With a view to know of what confequencc it was in 

 the practice of agriculture, to employ plump or lean grain 

 for feed, I planted, April 2d, 1 770, upon a fmall bed of 

 ground in a garden, one hundred of the plumpeft grains of 

 oats that I could pick out from a large parcel of unmixed 

 oats, in five rows, five inches row from row, and one inch 

 between each plant in the rows. On another equal fpot 

 in the fame ground, I planted at the fame time, and in the 

 fame manner, one hundred of the hungrieft grains I could 

 pick out from the fame parcel of oats: but to infure againft 

 contingencies, I :ilfo took as many of the fmall hungry 

 grains as equalled in weight the hundred plump grains above- 

 mentioned, which, when numbered., I found amounted to 

 one hundred and leventy. Thefe 170 grains I planted in 

 five rows, each of the fame length as the former, and dif- 

 tant from each other five inches, fo that the hundred and 



feventy 



