AND SEEDS ON SHIP-BOARD. 
notice it, as it not only points out the error, hut 
in some measure how to avoid it. 
“ A gentleman going to Bencoolen, in the island 
of Sumatra, had a mind to furnish himself with 
an assortment of seeds for a kitchen -garden ; these 
were accordingly packed up in boxes and casks, 
and stowed with other goods in the hold of the 
ship. When he arrived at Bencoolen he sowed 
his seeds, but soon found, to his great mortifica- 
tion, that they were all spoiled, for none of them 
came up. Convinced that it must be owing to 
the heat of the ship’s hold and their long confine- 
ment in putrid air, and having occasion to return 
to England, he determined in his next voyage 
thither to pack them up in such a manner, and to 
place them so as to give them as much air as he 
could, without the danger of exposing them to salt 
water ; and, therefore, put the smaller seeds into 
separate papers, and placed them among some 
clean straw in a small close net, and hung it up 
in his cabin ; and the larger ones he put into 
boxes, stowing them where the free air could come 
at them and blow through them : the effect was, 
that as soon as he arrived at Bencoolen he sowed 
them, and in a little time found, to his great satis- 
faction, that they all grew extremely well. It is 
well known to our seedsmen that even here at 
home, seeds kept in close warehouses and laid up 
