VEGETABLES. 473 



growth, cultivated by man, has such frequent and general 

 failures as hops. 



Two hop gardens much injured by a hail-storm, June 5, 

 shew 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. Therefore 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 admitted. 

 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 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 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, and then to have forgotten where 



