8 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Dr. Plott mentions a circumstance of bar- 

 ley and rye growing in the same ear alter- 

 nately. 



Tusser, who has left us an interesting 

 picture of the progress agriculture had made 

 in the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, notices 

 this circumstance in a verse of his Five 

 Hundred Points of good Husbandry. 



u Who soweth his barlie, too soone or in raine, 

 of otes and of thistles, shal after complain." 



In an edition of this work which was 

 printed in 1744, this phenomenon (as it w r as 

 then thought) is thus mentioned in a note : 



" Wild oats the peeler of the poorest land, 

 and who constantly attends wet seasons, is 

 not easily eradicated, or any good sign at all 

 given. They are not easily weeded when in 

 the blade ; and by the time they come into 

 the stalk, they have done their mischief. It 

 is a wonder, not yet accounted for, how they 

 come in such quantities as they do in some 

 lands ; pull one up when in blade, and you 

 will find a seed to the root. Mr. Atwell, in 

 his Surveying, says he took up whole yep- 

 sonds, (that is, as much as both hands would 

 hold at a time,) and carried them home ; one 

 would think they were of the Devil's own 

 sowing." 



