Heter'cecisvi. 49 



it is now difficult to ascertain it from observation, barberry 

 plants having (of late years more particularly) been extir- 

 pated from the farm hedges with the utmost care and 

 assiduity. One instance, however, of mischief this year 1 

 had related to me, and another I was myself eye-witness 

 to. Mr. William Barnard, of Bradfield, says, that this year, 

 seeing a patch of his wheat very much blighted, he looked 

 round for a barberry bush, but seeing none conspicuous in 

 the hedge, which was thick, he with some difficulty got into 

 it, and there found the enemy. He is clearly decided as to 

 the fact. Mr. William Gibbs, of Rowton, telling me that a 

 patch of his wheat was blighted in the same manner, and 

 that he believed it to proceed from some sprigs of barberry 

 Avhich remained in the neighbouring hedge (which a few 

 years ago was weeded from it), I went to inspect the place, 

 and true it is that near it we found three small plants of 

 barberry, one of which was particularly full of berries. 

 The straw of the wheat is black, while the rest of the piece 

 is of a much superior quality. 



" These circumstances are undoubtedly strong evidence, 

 but do not by any means amount to proof." 



On October 16, 1782, Marshall writes* — 



"To endeavour to ascertain the truth of this opinion, I 

 had a small bush of the barberry plant set in February or 

 March last, in the middle of a large piece of wheat. 



" I neglected to make any observations upon it until a 

 little before harvest, when a neighbour (Mr. John Baker, 

 of Southrepps) came to tell me of the effisct it had pro- 

 duced. 



" The wheat was then changing, and the rest of the 

 piece (about twenty acres) had acquired a considerable 

 degree of whiteness (white wheat), while about the barberry 

 bush there appeared a long but somewhat oval-shaped 



* Marshall, loc. ciL, p. 359. 



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