ACCLIMATING PLANTS. 71 



The next spring, 1857, some of the corn was sown in pots, to 

 test its vitality, and about the third week in May transplanted to 

 the warm soil over the ledge. A severe northeast storm checked 

 it, but it recovered and spindled before the middle of June. The 

 pollen was shaken over the silk many times daily. The cobs were 

 short, ten rowed, and only fruited midway between the ends, 

 giving a hint to take seed in future from the middle of the ear ; 

 indeed this course had been pursued in this year's planting. By 

 the middle of July, it was fit for the table. The second planting 

 ripened fully, and was used for seed. the next year, because it had 

 a shorter period from seed to harvest. 



The next year the first planting was made the second week in 

 Ma}' and was fit for the table the first week in August. The ears 

 that first showed silk, where two grew on a stalk, were mariTed for 

 seed. Few ears had more than ten rows, and many but eight. 



The practice after this was to sow according to the Indian rule, 

 when the leaves of the white oak were as large as a squirrel's ear, 

 "dressing the ground with hard wood ashes before planting, and 

 during the growing season with the liquid hen manure. Soon 

 after 1860 I left Waterville, and discontinued my experiments, 

 which had resulted in producing an earlier variety than the 

 early yellow Canada. This earliness was gained partly at the ex- 

 pense of size and quantity. In five yeai's it shrank from sixteen 

 to eight rows, while its period of growth was shortened from four 

 and a half months to less than two and a quarter, and it has fre- 

 quently been gathered for the table in sixty days from planting. 



In 1866 I tried an experiment at Newton, Mass., in producing 

 seedling peaches, from a small, hard, green, late, bitter A^ariety, 

 using chance fallen fruit that had been exposed to the frosts all 

 winter ; seven out of nine in the first generation bore fruit of fine 

 quality, ripening early in August. Some peaches from one of 

 these seedlings were presented at the exhibition of the Society on 

 the 13th of August, 1870, and received the commendation of the 

 Fruit Committee. The stones of these peaches were all small and 

 without germinal parts. 



It is understood that, in the germination of grain or seed, the 

 food stored in the endosperm or cotyledons, for the young embryo 

 to start with, must, if fully matured, undergo a change, the re- 

 verse of ripening, wherebj^ it is rendered again soluble, and capa- 

 ble of being transported by the sap to the growing parts of the 



