1870.] NOTES OF THE MONTH. 5 



and only three complaints were made regarding it. It was contended 

 that the deterioration of the crop was simply the result of the effects 

 and influences of season, and an abnormal growth, which continually 

 characterises every description of vegetable and green-crop produce — 

 points well known to intelligent gardeners and scientific men. The 

 effects and influences of season were singularly illustrated in the case 

 of one witness, who deposed, in August 1869 he purchased of Mr 

 Alderman Mackey 8 oz. of Cauliflower seed, 4 oz. of which were 

 sown, and produced an inferior crop of Cauliflowers, of which he 

 complained • while the remaining 4 oz. sown the spring following 

 gave a splendid crop, which paid the grower at the rate of £30 

 per acre. The variableness of crops was illustrated in the case 

 of other evidence adduced ; but as there happened to be something like 

 a dozen plants of Brussels Sprouts in the acre of Cauliflower (respect- 

 ing which no one was hazardous enough to swear they came from the 

 Cauliflower-seed), yet the appeal was allowed by a common jury, on the 

 ground " that the seed was not all Cauliflower-seed," and the costs and 

 expenses had to be borne by the defendant. In a letter published in the 

 1 Irish Farmers' Gazette,' from the pen of Mr Mackey — the outcome of 

 a straightforward honest tradesman, who felt that he had been wronged, 

 and who nobly disdained any suggestions of compromise, preferring to 

 stand by the broad principle involved in the decision — the defendant 

 states, with much truth, that "in reversing the decision of the Recorder, 

 the jury proclaimed to the public that a seedsman is to be held re- 

 sponsible for the result of crops that the grower is not satisfied with — 

 a judgment that will not be endorsed by any practical man who knows 

 that every year's experience proves, that while the crops of Mangold- 

 Wurzel, Carrots, &c, are to be seen starting and running to seed in 

 every well-tilled field, while the finest crops of Potatoes and Turnips 

 are produced, yet, when the grower comes to lift his produce of the 

 latter, he too often finds one-third, and sometimes one-half, rotten, 

 and, as complained of in this case, " not marketable ; " and the un- 

 happy vendor of the seed, by the same parity of reasoning, would be 

 mulcted in damages by the decision of a petty jury of the city of 

 Dublin." As an illustration of the variableness of crops, and as 

 affording an apt comment in the case just noticed, we may state that 

 one of the London wholesale seed -houses, famous for the quality 

 and purity of its stocks of round seeds, and the care with which it 

 selects them, some time since sent to one of their growers a quantity 

 of impregnated Walcheren Cauliflower, saved specially from some very 

 fine selected heads for their unmistakable quality. The produce of 

 this seed planted a large piece of ground, and, singular to say, there 

 was scarcely a plant but which w T as abnormal in growth, and went 



