202 



On Seed-Steeping, 



obtained was most plentiful, as if the ground itself had been well 

 manured. This experiment however can hardly be fairly classed 

 amongst those on seed-steeping, though at the same time it is 

 probable that the effects produced were in great part similarly 

 caused to those which from time to time have been produced by 

 mere steeping. 



Within the last three or four years public attention has been 

 again drawn to the subject of seed-steeping by reports of the won- 

 derful crops obtained from steeped seeds. In Germany M. Bickes 

 and M. Victor, and Mr. Campbell in our own country, have de- 

 scribed the surprising effects on vegetation produced by various 

 steeps ; indeed, the accounts published by the German authors are 

 so marvellous, and the deductions made by them from the results 

 of their experiments so startling, that they could not fail to excite 

 curiosity and induce experiment, though on consideration we feel 

 assured that the authors must have either been greatly deceived 

 themselves, or willing to exaggerate their results a little in order to 

 excite the attention of their readers. The experiments of these 

 authors are so well known that it is unnecessary here to reca- 

 pitulate them further, than to observe that the principle put forth 

 was the same as that advanced so long since by Bacon and others, 

 that by manuring the seed previous to sowing it, a far better 

 harvest would be obtained ; the plants would grow with greater 

 vigour and luxuriance, and in consequence would be less liable 

 to blights and the ravages of insects. Some of the recent advocates 

 of seed-steeping have gone much further than this, and have 

 asserted that by properly preparing the seed, it may be made to 

 absorb such a quantity of those substances which growing plants 

 require, that, when placed in the ground it will contain within 

 itself such a store of inorganic food, as to be quite independent 

 of the soil, and therefore in growing not exhaust the latter at all. 



The object, contemplated in the following series of experiments 

 made at the Garden of the Horticultural Society in the Spring of 



