44 PROFITS. 



value of the best. The collateral heads then suc- 

 ceed, and receive the name of " middlings/ 1 and 

 are the prime teazles. Should the season prove 

 moist, great injury ensues ; but exposure to wet for 

 any length of time ruins the head, which, by its 

 peculiar construction, retains the moisture, and it 

 decays. We cannot stack them like corn, as pres- 

 sure destroys the spines, and a free circulation of 

 air is required to dry them thoroughly ; and we 

 seek for barns, sheds, and shelter of any kind, 

 crowd the very bed-rooms of our cottages with 

 them in dripping seasons, and bask them in every 

 sunny gleam that breaks out: this is attended 

 with infinite trouble; and as few farmers, who 

 have so many other concerns on their hands, like 

 to encounter it, they become the speculation of 

 the most opulent class of cottagers. When dry, 

 they are picked and sorted into bundles for sale, 

 ten thousand best and small middlings making a 

 pack ; nine thousand constitute the pack of kings. 

 If there be a stock on hand, and the season favour- 

 able, there is a sufficiency for the demand, and the 

 price low : if adverse weather ensue, the price be- 

 comes greatly advanced, and we have known them 

 in the course of a few months vary from 4<L to 22/. 

 the pack ! but from 5/. to 7Z. is perhaps the average 

 price of this article. This variation in value affords 

 the growers a subject for constant speculation a 

 source of rapid wealth to some, and injury to others 

 and we most emphatically call teazles a u casualty 



