AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



309 



There seems to be a saving in time only by the machine. The 

 cost of work per acre being about the same as by hand. 



Weight of wheat in the various districts of Scotland in crop of 

 1855, viz: 



In Aberdeen, Argyll, Ayr, Banff, Berwick, Bute and Arran, 

 Caithness, Clackmannan, Dunbarton, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Elgin, 

 Fife, Forfar, Haddington, Inverness, Kincardine, Kinross, Kirkcud- 

 bright, Lamark, Lanark, Linlithgow, Lairn, Orkney, PeebleSj 

 Perth, Renfrew, Ross and Cromarty, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Stirling, 

 Sutherland, Wigtow^u. 



Smallest weight was in Renfrew,. .. 56 lbs. per bushel. 



Greatest weight in Argyll, 64 lbs. per bushel. 



General average, _ . ^0 lbs. per bushel. 



Weight in Perth, 63 to 64 lbs. per bushel. 



Sixty pounds per bushel is the fair common weight of the wheat 

 of Scotland. 



[Journal De La Societe Imperiale et Centraled'Horticulture, Napoleon 3d, Protec- 

 teur: Paris, August 1856.] 



Received from the Society by the American Institute, Oct. Sth, 



1856. 



Extracts translated by Secretary Meigs. 



HOW TO PRESERVE GRAIN AND HOW TO HASTEN ITS 

 GERMINATION. 



Seeds perish by means of humidity, from which it is very diffi- 

 cult to save them, above all in long sea voyages. Physiologists 

 know the longevity of a great number of seeds to whose duration 

 it is difficult, perhaps impossible to fix any limits. Forests of 

 second growth are instances in point. The phenomena of the 

 growth of vegetables different from the first growth have not been, 

 probably, sufiiciently studied by botanists — such as Capucras, 

 Restingues, Hemathes. Serious examination would doubtless 

 yield physiological discoveries of the highest interest. 



It is evident that certain precautions do preserve vegetative 

 virtue — experience has decided that. 



We see in the London Gardener's Chronicle of 29 th of March 



last, that Mr. G. Z. Wilson communicated to the Society of Arts, 



that one of his zealous friends had successfully raised tropical 



plants, by steeping them from ten to tw^enty days in glycerine 



[Am. Inst.] 91 



