SUMMER [Chap, 



ing. Next day, about noon, I went to look at 

 the corn, and found the blades closiny vp, as if 

 beginning to wither. I began, to be afraid. It 

 got, however, less and less withered every day, 

 till it resumed its full splendour as before; it 

 completely recovered the drooping in a very short 

 time, and the crop was so much greater than I 

 ever had seen before in my life, in proportion to 

 the size of the piece, that a very good neighbour 

 of mine several times expressed his regret that it 

 was not suffered to ripen, that we might have 

 taken an account of its produce ; but I wanted 

 the corn to eat green, in the manner to be de- 

 scribed by-and-bye, and, therefore, it was not 

 preserved until it was ripe. 



105. I give this as an instance of what plants 

 will bear in the way of inter-cultivation. We 

 tore to pieces, or cut off, all the lateral roots of 

 these corn plants. But the remaining parts of 

 these roots, for the reasons mentioned by Mr. 

 TuLL, became greater feeders than the whole of 

 the roots had been before. If you cut off a root 

 of any herbaceous plant in the summer time, 

 it is like cutting off the shoot of a tree ; several 

 roots come out immediately, instead of the one 

 there was before : these bring fresh supplies of 

 food, and the plant flourishes and produces ac- 

 cordingly. Yet I do not recommend such ad- 

 venturous work to be performed in an English 



