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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS AND NOTICES. 
XV. — On the Steeping of Seeds. By J. Campbell. 
To the Secretary. 
Sir, — At the late agricultural show held here, under the patronage of 
the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, on the 8th, 9th, 
and 10th ult., I exliibited specimens of oats, barley, wheat, and rye- 
grass, raised from seed chemically prepared, which were iavourahly 
noticed in the Society's Report. 
On the nth of July I sent a communication to Sir Charles Gordon, 
Secretary of the Highland Society of Scotland, from which the following is 
an extract : — " It is now a considerable time since I began to imagine 
that if the ultimate principles of which the proximate constituents of 
most of the gramineous seeds are composed could by any means be 
made so to enter the substance of the seed, and at the same time not to 
injure its vitality, as thoroughly to imbue its texture with an excess of 
these principles, the end (viz. of superseding manures) would be ac- 
complished ; and it is by doing this to a certain extent that I am con- 
vinced I have succeeded." 
The specimens which I exhibited were raised from seeds steeped in 
sulphate, nitrate, and muriate of ammonia, and nitrates of soda and 
potass, and combinations of these; and in all cases the results were 
highly satisfactory. Seeds of wheat, for example, prepared from sul- 
phate of ammonia, and sown on the 5th of July, had by the 10th of 
August, the last day of the show, tillered into nine, ten, and eleven stems 
of great and nearly equal vigour ; while seeds of the same sample, un- 
prepared, and sown at the same time in the same soil, had not tillered 
into more than tico, three, awl four stems. 
The specimens of oats, prepared from sulphate of ammonia, were 
magnificent both as to height and strength, being six feet high, and 
having stems like small canes, and consisted of an average of ten stems 
from each seed, and 160 grains on each stem. The oats from muriate 
of ammonia were vigorous, and equally prolific, but not so tall ; and 
those from the nitrates of soda and potass were nearly equally prolific, 
but still less tall. 
The specimens of barley consisted of an average of eleven and a half 
stems from each seed, and thirty-six grains on each stem, and were pre- 
pared from nitrate of ammonia. Big or bear, from the same prepara- 
tion, had an average of eleven and a half stems from each seed, and 
seventy-two grains on each stem. 
