[ 69 ] 



from it are lame, and have been delivered with fuch 

 8 myfterious air, as to give me no diftinct notion of 

 the matter; I refolved to fatisfy my (elf experimen- 

 tally on that head, which was done as under : 



Experiment Eleventh. 



Upon the 23d day of* April 1776, 1 fowed, on a bed of 

 good garden mould, fome feed potatoes that had been ga- 

 thered the former autumn, and had been preferved among 

 fome dryftrawall the winter, to prevent them from being 

 injured by the froft. The apples, which had been packed 

 up whole, were by that means fo much dried, that 1 found 

 it a difficult matter to feparate the feeds fufficicntly, which 

 occafioned the plants to come up in tufts much thicker in 

 fome places than others. The young plants appeared 

 above ground in about ten days, and advanced vigoroufly 

 during the fummer, cfpecially in thofe places where they 

 were not too thick. On the 3d day of November there- 

 after, they were carefully taken up, when it was found that 

 fome of them were nearly as big as a pigeon's egg, gra- 

 dually decreafing from that to the frze of common peafe, 

 many of them being no larger. A few of the largeft of 

 thefe were boiled, and others roafted, with a view to dif- 

 cover if they poflefled that rich almond-like tafte, which 

 fome pcrfons had faid the potatoes raifed from feeds always 

 poiTcflcd in a remarkable degree. They were found to 

 eat very well, but not one bit better than other good po- 

 tatoes of the fame kind that had been raifed from fets in 

 the ufual way. The remainder were carefully packed up 

 to guard againft froft, and were thus preferved for planting 

 in the fpring. 



F 2 April 



