466 The Natural History of Se I borne 



triangular harrow, drawn by one horse, and guided by two 

 handles. This occurrence brought to my mind the following 

 passage : 



" ipsa 



Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos" GEORG. 



Hops are dioecious plants ; hence perhaps it might be 

 proper, though not practised, to leave purposely some male 

 plants in every garden, that their farina might impregnate the 

 blossoms. The female plants without their male attendants 

 are not in their natural state : hence we may suppose the 

 frequent failure of crop so incident to hop-grounds ; no other 

 growth, cultivated by man, has such frequent and general 

 failures as hops. 



Two hop gardens much injured by a hailstorm, 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. 

 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. 



