weather, is, in this latitude, suffi cient to produce the change, which is prevented by letting out of the reservoir, every fourteen days, part of the old brine, and taking in a fresh supply of sea water, frequently very inferior in concentration or strength to that which is obliged thus to be discharged. If this tendency to putrefaction take place simply in consequence of the small proportion of animal and vegetable matters contained in sea water, there is still greater reason (exclusive of actual experiments) to conclude, that it will take place, in a much higher degree, on adding sea water to a

larger proportion of such substances

as of themselves have a tendency to the putrefactive state. As any far. ther proofs of the effects of the saline matters contained in sea water, in promoting putrefaction, may be deemed unnecessary, a method of procuring a supply, without incurring the expence of manufacturing them, or being liable to the present duties, is an object of the greatest importance to the farmer and the grazier, particularly to those who are at a distance from the sea.

In its vicinity, farmers and others avail themselves of their situation, and procure sea water either to mix with dung, or for the other purposes to which the application of it has been recommended. A ton of sea water contains from a bushel to a bushel and a quarter of sea salt, beside a certain proportion of the vitriolic salts. This quantity could not be purchased in England, including the duty, at an expence less than seven shillings, which farmers, situated as before described, may procure at the small expence of carriage.

Ave brents and a half of milk, each brent being about forty-eight quarts, was put into a large copper, which turned on a crane, over a slow wood-fire, made about two feet below the surface of the ground. The milk was stirred from time to time: and, about eleven o'clock, when just luke-warm or considerably under a blood heat, a ball of rennet, as big as a large walnut, was squeezed through a cloth into the milk which was kept stirring. This rennet was said to have been purchased of a man at Lodie, famous for the composition; but that it was principally made of the same part of the calf as we use in England for that purpose, mixed up with salt and vinegar it appeared to me to be also mixed with old cheese. I much doubt whether there was any great secret in the composition: but it seems to me that the just propertion of rennet is a matter of consequence, which is not in general sufficiently attended to. By the help of the crane, the copper was turned from over the fire, and let

T ten o'clock in the morning,

stand

stand till a few minutes past twelve ; at which time the rennet bad sufficiently operated. It was now stirred up, and left to stand a short time, for the whey to separate a little from the curd. Part of the whey was then taken out, and the copper again turned over a fire sufficiently brisk to give a strongish heat, but below that of boiling. A quarter of an ounce of saffron was put in, to -give it a little colour; but not so annaturally high as some cheeses in England are coloured; and it was well stirred from time to time. The dairy-man (this is not women's work in Italy) frequently felt the curd. When the small, and, as it were, granulated parts, felt rather firm, which was in about an hour and a half, the copper was taken from the fire, and the curd left to fall to the bottom. Part of the whey was taken out, and the curd brought up in a coarse cloth, hanging together in a tough state. It was put into a hoop, and about a half-hundred weight laid upon it, for about an hour; after which the cloth was taken off, and the cheese placed on a shelf in the same hoop. At the end of two, or from that to three days, it is sprinkled all over with salt the same is repeated every second day, for about forty to fortyfive days; after which no farther attention is required. Whilst salting, they generally place two cheeses one upon another; in which state they are said to take the salt better than singly.

The whey is again turned into the copper, and a second sort of cheese is made; and afterwards even a third sort, as I was informed; a piece of economy which I have not known practised in England.

Valuable new Discovery for the Preservation of Corn; from the Paris Moniteur-by Antoine Gouan, National Professor of Botany in the School of Health at Montpelier: Addressed to the National Convention.

No

person is ignorant how much O grain, roots, and collections of Natural History, are liable to be devoured by insects, and particularly by weevils, which, by consuming the internal part, and leaving only the husk, occasion frequently the greatest mischiefs.

These are considerably felt in great magazines, but particularly on ship-board, where numerous crews on long voyages require very ample store of corn, and where the diminution and damage produce often the most fatal consequences.

These inconveniences, and the difficulty of preserving these articles of the first necessity, have engaged my attention for many years, and induced me to attempt several methods of preserving them from the approach and ravages of these insects. I knew that in certain countries they expose their grain to smoke and vapour; in others it was placed for some time in an oven. I also knew that pepper and other aromatics were considered as good preservatives. But that which is easy and unexpensive on a small scale, becomes dear and impracticable when applied to a larger. My object was to find means, therefore, which should be at once easy, efficient, and economical:

I. By banishing the insects which cause this damage to the grain. II. By avoiding a weighty expence. III.

[* F 4]

III. And by exempting the grain from the odour contracted in fumigation, particularly from the oils of a low quality which are employed for this purpose.

In consequence, in the year 1786 I tried the experiment of placing different roots, &c. ripe and newly gathered in a box, which I had bored for the purpose of giving admission to mites and other insects. At the corners and bottom of the box I placed several leaves of hartwort, the odour of which I knew was noxious to several animals. In another I put leaves of horehound, of rue, and of tansy.-The boxes thus prepared, remained for a full year on the ground under my shelves.

At the end of that term I found the roots, &c. perfectly sound, but the odour of the plants more or less remained; and fearing that it might communicate itself to the outward skin, and occasion a disgusting taste, I proceeded to substitute to the former bitter acromotic herbs, such as the little centaury, wormwood, thyme, mint, savory, &c. which are every where found in abundance.

I thus preserved the grain, &c. for a long time, without renewing the plants. Those which I now present to the Convention have been thus preserved since the year

1788.

After this experiment, now made seven years since, there can be no doubt but that the practice would succeed on a much larger scale; and as the grain and seeds, when gathered ripe and kept from a moist air, preserve for a long time their vegetable faculties, it follows, that they may be thus conveyed in safety, and planted with success in the most

distant countries, and after the longest voyages.

I have thus done my duty, as a good citizen, in presenting to my country the result of my researches, in a discovery valuable in itself and useful to humanity.

P. S. I did not think it right to try the means which some persons use to preserve the corn, by burning it with chalk and cinders, as a trifling circumstance may alter these substances in such a manner as to damage the grain.

Discovery in Distillation from Potatoes, which will no Doubt increase the Cultivation of that Valuable Article of Life.

DOTATOES have been found,

by repeated experiments, to yield by distillation a vinous spirit of a most exquisite quality, superior to the finest brandy; and in the quantity of about five quarts, highly rectified, from the quantity of seventy pounds weight.

In the process the loss of time and expence inseparable from malt distillation are avoided; the potatoes are boiled to a thin pulp, which is diluted with hot water, and strained; the mass is then fermented with barm for about a fortnight, and then distilled in the usual way.

The spirit yielded possesses a strong favour and perfume of raspberries, and is not liable to be spoiled by what is called the feints coming over the helm, as the very last and weakest part that comes off the still, is equally sweet with the first. These facts were long since ascertained to the satisfaction of the Bath society, by Dr. Anderson.

Observations

Observations on the grafting of Trees. In a Letter from Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart from the Philosophical Trans

I

actions.

Sir,

AM encouraged to address the following letter to you, by the opinion you were last year pleased to express of part of my experiments and observations, on the diseases and decay of those varieties of the apple and pear which have been long in cultivation. The disease, from whose ravages they suffer most is the canker, the effects of which are generally first seen in the winter, or when the sap is first rising in the spring. The bark becomes discoloured in spots, under which the wood, in the annual shoots, is dead to the centre, and in the older branches, to the depth of the last summer's growth. Previous to making any experiments, I had con❤ versed with several planters, who entertained an opinion, that it was impossible to obtain healthy trees of those varieties which flourished in the beginning and middle of the present century, and which now form the largest orchards in this country. The appearance of the young trees, which I had seen, justitied the conclusion they had drawn; but the silence of every writer on the subject of planting, which had come in my way, convinced me that it was a vulgar error, and the following experiments were undertaken to prove it so.

I suspected that the appearance of decay in the trees I had seen lately grafted, arose from the diseas ed state of the grafts, and concluded that if I took scions or buds from

trees grafted in the year preceding, I should succeed in propagating any kind I chose. With this view, I inserted some cuttings of the best wood I could find in the old trees, on young stocks raised from seed. I again inserted grafts and buds taken from these on other young stocks, and, wishing to get rid of all connection with the old trees, I repeated this six years; each year taking the young shoots from the trees last grafted. Stocks of different kinds were tried, some were double grafted, others obtained from appletrees which grew from cuttings, and others from the seed of each kind of fruit afterwards inserted on them; I was surprised to find that many of these stocks inherited all the diseases of the parent trees.

The wood appearing perfect and healthy in many of my last grafted trees, I flattered myself that I had succeeded; but my old enemies, the moss and canker, in three years convinced me of my mistake. Some of them, however, trained to a south wall, escaped all their diseases, and seemed (like invalids) to enjoy the benefit of a better climate. I had before frequently observed, that all the old fruits suffered least in warm situations, where the soil was not unfavourable. I tried the ef fects of laying one kind, but the canker destroyed it at the ground. Indeed I had no hopes of success from this method, as I had observed that several sorts, which had always been propagated from cuttings, were as much diseased as any others. The wood of all the old fruits has long appeared to me to possess less elasticity and hardness, and to feel more soft and spongy under the knife, than that of the new varieties which I have obtained from

seed

seed. This defect may, I think, be the immediate cause of the canker and moss, though it is probably itself the effect of old age, and therefore incurable.

Being at length convinced that all efforts, to make grafts from old and worn out trees grow, were ineffectual, I thought it probable that those taken from very young trees, raised from seed, could not be made to bear fruit. The event here an swered my expectation. Cuttings from seedling apple-trees of two years old were inserted on stocks of twenty, and in a bearing state. These have now been grafted nine years, and though they have been frequently transplanted to check their growth, they have not yet produced a single blossom. I have since grafted some very old trees with cuttings from seedling appletrees of five years old: their growth has been extremely rapid, and there appears no probability that their time of producing fruit will be accelerated, or that their health will be injured, by the great age of the stocks. A seedling apple tree usually bears fruit in thirteen or four teen years; and I therefore conclude, that I have to wait for a blossom till the trees, from which the grafts were taken, attain that age, though I have reason to believe, from the form of their buds, that they will be extremely prolific. Every cutting, therefore, taken from the apple (and probably from every other) tree, will be affected by the State of the parent stock. If that be too young to produce fruit it will grow with vigour but will not blessom, and if it be too old it will immediately produce fruit, but will never make a healthy tree, and consequently never answer the in

tention of the planter. The root, however, and the part of the stock adjoining it, are greatly more durable than the bearing branches; and I have no doubt but that scions obtained from either would grow with vigour, when those taken from the bearing branches would not. The following experiment will, at least, evince the probability of this in the pear-tree. I took cuttings from the extremities of the bearing branches of some old ungrafted pear-trees, and others from scions which sprang out of the trunks near the ground, and inserted some of eachon thesame stocks. The former grew without thorns, as in the cultivated varieties, and produced blossoms the second year; whilst the latter assumed the appearance of stocks just raised from seeds, were covered with thorns, and have not yet produced any blossoms.

The extremities of those branches which produce seeds, in every tree, probably shew the first indication of decay; and we frequently see (particularly in the oak) young branches produced from the trunk, when the ends of the old ones have long been dead. The same tree, when cropped, will produce an almost eternal succession of branches. The durability of the apple and pear, I have long suspected to be different in different varieties, but that none of either would vegetate with vigour much, if at all, beyond the life of the parent stock, provided that died from mere old age. I am confirmed in this opinion by the books you did me the honour to send me; of the apples mentioned and described by Parkinson, the names only remain, and those since applied to other kinds now also worn out; but many of Evelyn's are still well known,

paru