RIPENING of Grain, means its arriving to maturity. The following paper, which appeared in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, may be worthy the attention of farmers in this country; where it frequently happens, from continued rains, that the corn is quite green when the frosts set in; in consequence of which, the farmers cut it down, without thinking it can possibly arrive at further maturity.

"Summer 1792 having been remarkably cold and unfavourable, the harvest was very late, and much of the grain, especially oats, was green even in October. In the beginning of October the cold was so great, that, in one night, there was produced on ponds near Kinneil, in the neighbourhood of Borrowstounness, ice three quarters of an inch thick. It was apprehended by many farmers, that such a degree of cold would effectually prevent the further filling and ripening of their corn. In order to ascertain this point, Dr Roebuck selected several stalks of oats, of nearly equal fulness, and immediately cut those which, on the most attentive comparison, appeared the best, and marked the others, but allowed them to remain in the field 14 days longer; at the end of which time they, too, were cut, and kept in a dry room for 10 days. The grains of each parcel were then weighed; when 11 of the grains which had been left standing in the field were found to be equal in weight to 30 of the grains which had been cut a fortnight sooner, though even the best of the grains were far from being ripe. During that fortnight (viz. from October 7th to October 21st) the average heat, according to Fahrenheit's thermometer, which was observed every day at eight o'clock in the morning and six in the evening, was a little above 43°. Dr Roebuck observes, that this ripening and filling of corn in so low a temperature should be the less surprising to us, when we reflect, that feed-corn will vegetate in the same degree of heat; and he draws an important inference from his observations, viz. That farmers should be cautious of cutting down their unripe corn, on the supposition that in a cold autumn it could fill no more."

A writer in the Scots Magazine for June 1792, under the signature of Agricola, when speaking on this subject, adds the following piece of information, viz. "That grain cut down before it is quite ripe will grow or spring equally well as ripe and plump grain, provided it is properly preserved. I relate this from a fact, and also on the authority of one of the most judicious and experienced farmers in this island, William Craik of Arbigland, Esq., near Dumfries, who was taught by such a reason as this threatens to prove. This being the case, every wise economical farmer will preserve his ripe and plump grain for bread, and sow the green and seemingly shrivelled grain, with a perfect conviction that the plants proceeding from such seed will yield as strong and thriving corn as what grows from plump seed. By this means the farmer will enjoy the double advantage of having the corn most productive in flour for bread, and his light shrivelled grain will go much farther in feed." Ripening than the plump grain would do. I saw the experiment made on wheat which was so shrivelled that it was thought scarcely worth giving to fowls, and yet produced heavy large ears."

**RIPHOEAN MOUNTAINS**, are a chain of high mountains in Russia, to the north-east of the river Obi, where there are said to be the finest fables of the whole empire.