396 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Praetor of Rome, having been suddenly seized 

 with a fit of the gout, while sitting in his 

 barn to see the corn winnowed, he thrust his 

 legs above the knees into the heap of wheat, 

 either by accident, or in a rage from the ex- 

 treme pain, where he soon found himself 

 wonderfully eased, and his legs much dried 

 thereby, from which time he never used any 

 other remedy, but so soon as he found a fit 

 of the gout coming, he plunged his feet and 

 legs into a heap of wheat. This corn is said 

 to be of such a desiccative nature that it will 

 dry up the wine, or any other liquor in a bar- 

 rel, which is buried within it. 



PROPAGATING OF WHEAT BY DIVIDING 

 AND TRANSPLANTING ITS ROOTS. 



In the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1768, we meet with an account of a very ex- 

 traordinary experiment, of which the follow- 

 ing is an abstract : 



On the 2d June, 1766, Mr. C. Miller sowed 

 some grains of the common red wheat ; and 

 on the 8th of August a single plant was taken 

 up and separated into eighteen parts, and 

 each part planted separately. These plants 

 having pushed out several side shoots, about 

 the middle of September some of them were 



