331) Thoughts on Mr. Dreiverif s 



conducting wires attached to the hop-poles, in the form of 

 pai-agreles ; it follows that copper wires, so attached, would, 

 in all probability, ward off those causes which determine such 

 devastations in hop plantations. The experiment is easy, 

 and the expense trifling : if carried into practice, the contrast 

 would, if I am not much deceived, decide in favour of their 

 universal adoption ; and, should this appear in your next 

 Number, it will be in good time for the hop-growers. Let 

 it not be forgotten that a plant luxuriating in health is 

 seldom or never the prey of insect tribes ; but, when sickly, it 

 soon becomes the victim of many enemies. This is clearly 

 perceived in every realm of zoology, as well as in the tenants 

 of the vegetable kingdom. 



In the summer of 1827 I had evidence which may tend to 

 confirm my views analogically. By the effect of an east wind 

 a fine Siberian crab was very singularly blighted, exhibiting 

 precisely the appearance of its having been the victim of a 

 flash of lightning ; the leaves, presenting the semblance as of 

 their having been poisoned, became black and decayed ; and 

 the young twigs withered aw-ay. No mere mechanical rush of 

 wind, 1 should presume, could have produced such an effect. 



Fehniary 6. 1829. Yours, &c. John Murray. 



Art. XXIX. Thoughts on Mr. Dreiver^s " Netv System ofFaryn- 

 ing-" In a Letter to a Gentleman who had desired him to 

 peruse Mr. Brewery's Book. By J. H. 



Sir, 

 According to your desire, I have perused Mr. Drewery's 

 New System of Farming, with all the attention and all the 

 patience which I am master of, and cannot help pronouncing 

 it altogether the m'eatest hoax I ever read. The author is 

 not only palpably ignorant as an author, but deficient in truth, 

 common sense, and common experience. Lie is also very pre- 

 sumptuous in claiming the invention of boiling pig meat, 

 which is nothing more than a second edition of the " kail 

 brose of Auld Scotland ; " and that meal would counter- 

 act the poisonous effects of his boiled rubbish, though it 

 may be found in Holy Writ that Elijah healed a pot of deadly 

 pottage by strewing a handful of meal in it. Common sense 

 informs us that every sort of cookery is only for the purpose 

 of assisting digestion : old horses require old beans to be either 

 ground, or softened by boiling ; but to boil greeii food for them 

 is both heterodoxical and paradoxical. The pig is a semi- 

 carnivorous animal ; its stomach is calculated to digest almost 

 every kind of food. For this reason, store pigs require no 



