OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES 



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 consid- 

 erable 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 peas are growing also 

 in the same situation, and probably under the same circum- 

 stances. 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, discolor the stems 

 and blades, and injure the health of the plants ? WHITE. 



TRUFFLES. August. A truffle-hunter called on us, hav- 

 ing in his pocket several large truffles found in this neighbor- 

 hood. He says these roots are not to be found in deep woods, 



