OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 431 



down the middle of the Hanger, close covered over with lofty 

 beeches near a century old, is still called " strawberry slidder/' 

 though no strawberries have grown there in the memory of man. 

 That sort of fruit did once, no doubt, abound there, and will 

 again when the obstruction is removed. WHITE. 



BEANS SOWN BY BIRDS. 



Many horse-beans sprang up in my field-walks in the autumn, 

 and are now grown to a considerable height. As the Ewel was in 

 beans last summer, it is most likely that these seeds came from 

 thence; but then the distance is too considerable for them to 

 have been conveyed by mice. It is most probable therefore that 

 they were brought by birds, and in particular by jays and pies, 

 who seem to have hid them among the grass and moss, and then 

 to have forgotten where they had stowed them. Some pease are 

 growing also in the same situation, and probably under the same 

 circumstances . WHITE. 



CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES. 



If bees, who are much the best setters of cucumbers, do not 

 happen to take kindly to the frames, the best way is to tempt 

 them by a little honey put on the male and female bloom. When 

 they are once induced to haunt the frames, they set all the fruit, 

 and will hover with impatience round the lights in a morning, till 

 the glasses are opened. Probatum est. WHITE. 



WHEAT. 



A notion has always obtained that in England hot summers are 

 productive of fine crops of wheat; yet in the years 1780 and 1781, 

 though the heat was intense, the wheat was much mildewed, and 

 the crop light. Does not severe heat, while the straw is milky, 

 occasion its juices to exude, which being extravasated, occasion 

 spots, discolour the stems and blades, and injure the health of the 

 plants ? WHITE. 



