Chap. II. BY M. DE CHATEAU-VIEUX. 227 



can fow with fuccefs, when the weather is very hot, and the earth 

 very dry. Upon reading Mr. Duhamel du Monceau's excellent 

 treatife on the pfeferv'ation of corn, I obferved that he had found 

 by his experiments, that wheat which had been dried in a ftove 

 heated to 60 degrees of M. de Reaumur's thermometer, had loll its 

 faculty of growing. 



" From thence I conjedlured that wheat which fhould undergo a 

 heat, for example, of 30 degrees, during a longer time, would be 

 equally parched up, and rendered incapable of vegetating. I con- 

 fidered the earth, when hot and dry, as a kind of llove, in Vv'hich 

 if the feed remained too long, without receiving any moifture, it may 

 become fo dry, that the greateft part of it will never be able to fprout. 

 I thought this reafoning juft ; and therefore determined, in order fully 

 to fatisfy myfelf, to have recourfe to that trufty guide, experience. 



" On the 1 8th of July, 1754, at four o'clock in the afternoon, I 

 placed M. de Reaumur's thermometer two inches deep in the earth, 

 and fcreened it from the immediate impreihon of the rays of the 

 fun. The liquor rofe to the 3 ill degree, which fhewed me the 

 heat of the earth. 



" The thermometer being afterwards expofed to the fun, the 

 liquor rofe to 56 degrees. 



" The fame day, I fowed 80 grains of wheat in the fame ground. 

 The heat continued nearly the fame the reft of that month, and 

 almoft all Auguft. On the 31ft of July, only 10 grains had fhot 

 up, and on the i6th of Auguft there were in all 16 ; after which, 

 not one more rofe : confequently 64 grains out of the 80 never 

 fprouted at all *. 



On the 28th of July I fowed 50 grains. Only four of them rofe 

 by the i6th of Auguft, and not one after. Here were again 46 

 grains which did not grow at all. 



The fame day, I fowed 60 grains in another place. On the i6th 

 of Auguft only fix grains had fprouted, and not one plant more ever 

 appeared after : confequently here too were 54 grains which never 

 grew. All thefe grains were fowed in my garden, in exceeding 

 good mould. 



" I was fure that the wheat I fowed was perfedlly found, and in 

 every refpecfl capable of growing. It was therefore quite clear, that 

 fo great a number of grains out of the whole, which did not fprout at 



G g 2 all, 



* Wheat has however been known to rife very well after having remained fix weeks 

 or two months xr the earth : perhaps the circumftances were different. 



