Part III.] Morris Biskbeck, Esq. ' 339 



What a loss arises from this ! What a plague it is. We 

 cannot keep a whole farrow of pigs, unless we breed 

 from all the sows ! They go away : they plague us to 

 death. Many a man in England, now as poor as an 

 owlet, would (if he kept from the infernal drink) 

 become rich here in a short time. These sow-gelders, 

 as they call ihem, swarm in England. Any clown of a 

 fellow follows this callina:, which is hardly two decrees 

 above rat-catching and mole-catching: and yet there i 

 no such person here, where swine are so numerous, and 

 where so many millions are fatted for exportation 

 It is very strange ! 



642. To return to the thatching : Straw is not so 

 durable as one eoidd wish : besides, in very high winds, 

 it is liable, if not reeded, to be ruffed a good deal ; and 

 the reeding, which is almost like counting the straws 

 one by one, is expensive. In England we sometimes 

 thatch with reerfs, which in Hampshire, are called spear. 

 This is an aquatic plant. It grows in the water, and 

 will grow no where else. When stout it is of the 

 thickness of a small cane at the bottom, and is about 

 four or five feet long. 1 have seen a thatch of it, which, 

 with a little patching, had lasted upwards of Jifti/ years. 

 In gentlemen's gardens, there are sometimes hedges 

 or screens made of these reeds. They last, if well put 

 up, half a century, and are singularly neat, while they 



Earry the wind much belter than paling or walls, 

 ecause there is no eddy proceeding Irom their repid- 

 sion. They are generally put round those parts of the 

 garden where the hot-beds are. 



643. Now, the Kroom-Corn far surpasses the reeds 

 in all respects. 1 intend, -i« my Book on Gardening, 

 to give a full account of the applicability of this plant 

 to garden-uses both here and in England ; for, as to the 

 reeds, they can seldom be had, and a screen of them 

 comes, in most parts of England, to more money than 

 a paling of oak. But, the Broom-Corn! What an 

 useful thing! What quantities upon an acre of land 

 Ten feet hic/h, and mote durable than reeds ! Tht 

 seed-stems, with a bit of the stem of the plant, make 

 the brooms. These, I hear, are now sent to England. 



Q 2 



