80 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



througli tlic black clust in all directions came tlie 

 potato plant, fresh, green and strong, and in some 

 places miles away from fields that had ever borne 

 such roots. There Avas no potato, even of the size 

 of a pea, beneath the plant — it could only have 

 sprung from seed. 



The haulm had never shown itself before in the 

 memory of man on these aboriginal heaths, but 

 from some cause or other the seed had been de- 

 posited there, kept from vivifying by the wilder 

 and superincumbent mass. 



It opens a very good lesson to a man's mind 

 to find himself merely a game preserver, and 

 then to view himself in the double position of 

 game preserver and farmer on an arable farm, 

 adjoining his woods. In my practice in this 

 double capacity, I have been very well enabled to 

 estimate the damage done by rabbits and game, 

 and to observe how much failure of crop is laid to 

 the game, which failure really originated, in effect, 

 from climate, blight, and insect voracity. At one 

 time, on a farm in my own liands, having the 

 shooting, not only did I know very well that the 

 rabbits were reduced within proper limits while 

 the agricultural portion of the acres were in tlie 



