t 33 1 



part, if not the whole of the expence. Were fuch a fet of 

 experiments carefully made, and properly publifhed, it 

 would probably advantage the publick many millions a year. 

 How much is it to v be regretted that a national experi- 

 mental farm is not fet apart for making fuch experiments 

 in agriculture, as it docs not befit practical farmers to 

 make at their own expence! 



[In practice at prefent, fome perfons choofe to plant 

 large, and others only very fmall cuttings or little potatoes, 

 yet every man invariably plants them at one dijlance in all 

 cafes, planting the fmall feeds as wide as the large, when 

 he chances to have them o\' different flzes. This being 

 the cafe, it feems impoflible, if the foregoing experiments 

 can be relied on, (and I have found by many trials they cer- 

 tainly may) but that the largeft crop muft always be ob- 

 tained from that field which has been planted with the 

 largeft 'feeds — other circumftances being nearly alike. And 

 as the variation arifing from this hitherto unobferved pecu- 

 liarity may be extremely great, may we not reafonably 

 conclude that fome of thofe extraordinary variations in the 

 produce of potatoes, which have been remarke d,but not 

 accounted for in any probable manner, may have arifen 

 iolely from this circumftance?] 



§.xi. 



To enable individuals to eftimate without much 

 trouble the amount of any crop of potatoes they 

 wi(h to examine, I here fubjoin a table, (hewing the 

 number of plants that would be contained in an 

 acre at each of the forementioned diftances, and 

 the weight of produce from twenty plants in each 



Vol. IV. D cafe, 



