VOL. XXXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 5Q 



cutting off sticks of 5 or 6 feet long, and setting them a foot deep into the 

 ground in the spring of the year, when the season is wet: they thrive best in 

 a moist soil. 



An onion, set out for seed, will rise to 4 feet 9 inches in height. A 

 parsnip will reach to 8 feet ; red orrice will mount 9 feet ; white orrice 8, 

 In the pastures, he measured seed mullen 9 feet 2 inches in height, and one 

 of the common thistles above 8 feet. 



Among the remarkable instances of the power of vegetation, Mr. D. had a 

 well attested account of a pumpkin seed, from Mr. Edwards of Windsor, as 

 follows : that in the year 1699, a single pumpkin seed was accidentally dropped 

 in a small pasture where cattle had been foddered for some time. This single 

 seed took root of itself, and without any manner of care or cultivation, the 

 vine ran along over several fences, and spread over a large piece of ground far 

 and wide, and continued its progress till the frost came and killed it. The plant 

 had only one stalk, but a very large one; for it measured 8 inches round; 

 from this single vine were gathered 260 pumpkins; one with another as large 

 as a half peck; enough in the whole, to fill a large tumbrel, besides a consider- 

 able number of small and unripe pumpkins. The Philos. Trans, give an ac- 

 count of a single plant of barley, that by steeping and watering with salt-petre 

 dissolved in water, produced 249 stalks, and 18,000 grains; but then there 

 was art, and even force in that case; whereas in the other, there was nothing 

 but pure nature and accident. 



The Indian corn is the most prolific grain that we have, and commonly pro- 

 duces 1200, and often 2000 grains, from one : but the fairest computation is 

 thus; 6 quarts of this grain will plant an acre of ground; and it is not unusual 

 for an acre of good ground to produce 30 bushels of corn. 



The Indian corn is of several colours, as blue, white, red, and yellow; and 

 if they are planted separately, or by themselves, so that no other sort be near 

 them, they will keep to their own colour, i. e. the blue, will produce blue, the 

 white, white, &c. But if in the same field, you plant the blue corn in one 

 row of hills, as they are called, and the white, or yellow, in the next row, 

 they will mix, and interchange their colours ; that is, some of the ears of 

 corn in the blue corn rows, will be white, or yellow ; and some again, in the 

 white or yellow rows, will be of a blue colour. The hills of Indian corn are 

 generally about 4 feet asunder, and so continued in a straight line, as far as the 

 field will allow; and then a second line or row of hills, and so on ; and yet 

 this mixing and interchanging of colours has been observed, when the distance 

 between the rows of hills, has been several yards; and Mr. D. has been assured, 

 that the blue corn has thus communicated, or exchanged, even at the distance 



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