1S4? On preserving Seeds of Plants 
On some trials made with it, and the common log, they 
perfectly agreed, at other times they differed a little, but 
last night bearing up for Torbay, with a run of eighty 
miles in squally weather, there was a difference of nine 
miles: but agreeably to our reckoning the patent log 
was perfectly correct; we therefore consider it an im- 
portant improvement in navigation, and the more so, as 
the instrument is simple and easy to be generally under- 
stood. 
The chief things necessary to be observed are to secure 
the tow-line as near the surface as possible, to prevent 
the machine from quitting the water in an agitated sea, 
and fast sailing, and not to be less than sixty fathoms 
long in a first rate, to prevent it from being affected by 
the eddy of the ship’s wake. We are, &c. 
Il» J. Neve, Captain. 
Thomas Moose, Master. 
To sir Charles Cotton, bart. viceadmiral of the red, &c. 
No. 23. 
On Preserving Seeds of Plants in a State jit for Vegeta - 
tion. By John Sneyd, Esquire, of Belmont, Stafford- 
shire.* 
Many years ago having observed some seeds which 
had got accidentally amongst raisins, and that they were 
such as are generally attended with difficulty to raise in 
England after coming in the usual way from abroad, I 
sowed them in pots, within a framing ; and as all of them 
grew, I commissioned my sons, who were then abroad, 
to pack up all sorts of seeds they could procure in ab- 
* Tilloch, vol. 3, p. 30. From the Transactions of the Society for the Encou- 
ragement of Arts, vol. 16. 
