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many seeds exists, during the warmer days of winter, in our granaries, which 
probably consists in the process of the conversion of mucilage into starch; 
in the same manner as the harsh juices of crab-apples, and of austre pears, 
are continually changing into sugar during the winter; both which processes 
are probably in part chemical, like the slow but perpetual change of sugar 
into vinous spirit, when the juices of sweeter apples and pears, or grapes, are 
put into bottles in the manufacture of cyder, perry, and wine. 
This improvement of wheat , and of harley , and of oats , is well known 
to the baker, the maltster, and the horse-dealer; as better bread is made 
from old wheat , and harley is converted into better malt in the vernal months; 
and horses are believed to thrive better, and to possess more vigour, when 
they are fed with old than with new oats . 
Another circumstance of consequence was first discovered by chance by 
M. Chateauvieux, and was confirmed by repeated experiments, always 
attended with equal success. In his experimental sowings, he commonly 
used wheat taken from the heap in the granary, and sometimes corn picked 
out of the ears, the moment before it was sown. He counted the number 
of grains, of both sorts, and found a very considerable difference in their 
productions. What was picked out of the ears always rose extremely well; 
scarce a grain ever missed; whereas, numbers of those taken from the heaps 
never sprouted at all. He did not perceive this difference at first, but at last 
it struck him; and he relates the fact without pretending to account for it. 
The experiment itself may be of real use, by shewing, that instead of 
threshing the wheat intended for seed, at any time, it ought not to be threshed 
till within a few days of its being sown. 
