313 
If we carry our remarks even into the Torrid Zone, we shall find that it 
is neither from Asia, nor from Africa, that we obtain the clove, the nutmeg, 
the cinnamon, the pepper of the best quality; the benzoin, the sandal-wood, 
the sagoe, and many others, but from the Molucca Islands , or from those 
which are in the same seas. The cocoa-tree attains its perfect beauty only 
in the Maldivia Islands. Nay, there are, in the archipelagos of these seas, 
a great number of fruit-trees described by Dampier, which have not yet 
been transplanted into the Old Continent; such as the grape-tree. The 
double cocoa is to be found only in the Sechelles Islands. The islands 
recently discovered in the South-Sea, such as that of Taiti, have presented 
us with trees hitherto unknown, as the bread-fruit, and the mulberry-tree, 
the bark of which serves to make cloth. As much may be said of the 
vegetable productions of the islands of America relatively to their continent. 
The finest species of corn, therefore, which is wheat, might be referred 
to Sicily , where, in fact, they pretend it was originally found. Fable has 
immortalised this discovery, by making that island the scene of the amours 
of Ceres , as well as the birth of Bacchus , in the isle of Naxos, because of the 
beauty of its vines. This much is certain, that com is no where indigenous 
but in Sicily , if it should be found it still re-perpetuates itself there sponta¬ 
neously, as the ancients affirm. 
It would be worth the farmer’s while to study the varieties of wheat, 
and soil which each seems best to thrive in. In general, all wheat succeeds 
best upon strong soils, particularly if they have been well drained, so that 
the corn lies dry; but as some sorts of this grain thrive better in some soils 
than others , it might redound to the public welfare if more accurate 
observations were made in regard to each kind. The white egg-shell wheat 
is reckoned best for light land, and to sow with rye for meslin; because it 
ripens soonest. It is indeed of little use in this country for this purpose, as 
a mixture of wheat and rye flour is not esteemed here. This wheat 
should be the earliest in the ground: it is much sown in Essex upon their 
hazely loams, or brick earths; as the red wheat and th Boland bearded 
wheat are also, both there and in this county, upon stiff yellow clays. The 
white Boland , or Pole-rivet, has not a hollow straw, and is therefore not so 
subject to lodge, as other corn that has. This kind is particularly fit for 
lands where the crop is apt to run much to straw. 
In Oxfordshire they have a sort of wheat, which they call long-coned 
wheat, and reckon the best for rank clays. Its straw not being hollow, it 
4 K 
