297 
There is nevertheless an experiment related by Dr. Roebuck in the 
Edinburgh Transactions, Vol. I. which seems to shew, that the grains of oats 
continue to fill and become heavier even during the autumnal frosts; which 
may probably occur during the sunshine of the middle part of the day, as 
occurs in the vernal frosts of this part of the country. In If 80, near 
Borrowstowness, the oats were green even in October, when the ice was 
three fourths of an inch thick. He selected several stalks of oats of nearly 
equal fulness, cut half of them, and marked the remainder, which continued 
fourteen days longer in the field; after being dry, the grains of each parcel 
were weighed; and eleven of those grains, which had remained in the field, 
weighed thirty of those which had been cut a fortnight sooner. 
This important experiment should teach our farmers not to cut their peas 
and leans too early in inclement autumns; which are so frequently seen to 
become shrunk and shrivelled in the barn or granary, and inclined to' rot 
from deficient ripeness, and consequent softness or moisture; and thus 
contain much less flour in proportion to the husk or bran. 
The wheat produced after land has been much limed, is believed to be 
thinner skinned, and to yield more good meal, than other wheat, and to 
make better bread. On this account I suppose one use of lime is to forward 
the ripening of seeds by converting the mucilage sooner into starch or oil; 
as, according to the experiments of M. Parmentier, the goodness of bread 
depends much on the quantity of starch contained in it; who found, that if 
the starch taken from eight pounds of raw potatoes, by grating them into 
cold water, was mixed with eight pounds of boiled potatoes, as good bread 
might be produced as from wheat flour. 
The lull-hearing, or orange lily (Lilium Bulbiferum), so called from 
producing bulbs in the axillas of each of the upper leaves, which, when the 
stalks decay, if planted, will grow, as well as some lulhiferous grasses, 
although the flowers are conspicuous, are said but seldom, or ever, to form 
prolific seeds, which are found w r hen sown to vegetate. 
The seeds of some plants, which also propagate themselves under 
ground by bulbs at their roots, will not ripen in this climate naturally, as 
the snowdrop ; but are said to ripen, if the new bulbs be cut off eaily in the 
season; or if the propagation by their roots be retarded or prevented by 
confininp’ them in garden-pots; and it is probable, that the seeds of 
potatoes might be rendered more perfectly ripe, and in consequence better 
for the cultivation of new varieties; if the young roots were taken away early 
4 F 
© 
