390 OBSERVATIONS 



cultivated by man, has such frequent and general 

 failures as hops. 



Two hop-gardens much injured by a hail-storm, 

 June 5, show now (September 2) a prodigious crop, 

 and larger and fairer hops than any in the parish. 

 The owners seem now to be convinced that the hail, 

 by beating off the tops of the binds, has increased the 

 side -shoots, and improved the crop. Query. There- 

 fore, should not the tops of hops be pinched off when 

 the binds are very gross and strong? WHITE. 



SEED LYING DORMANT. The naked part of the 

 Hanger is now covered with thistles of various kinds. 

 The seeds of these thistles may have lain probably 

 under the thick shade of the beeches for many years, 

 but could not vegetate till the sun and air were ad- 

 mitted. When old beech trees are cleared away, the 

 naked ground, in a year or two, becomes covered 

 with strawberry plants, the seeds of which must have 

 lain in the ground for an age at least. One of the 

 slidders, or trenches, down the middle of the Hanger, 

 close covered over with lofty beeches near a century 

 old, is still called strawberry -slidder, though no straw- 

 berries 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 con- 

 siderable 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, 



