VEGETABLES. 487 



BEANS SOWN BY BIRDS. 



MANY horsebeans sprang up in my field-walks in the 

 autumn, and are now grown to a considerable height. 

 As the Ewel was in beans last summer, it is most likely 

 that these seeds came from thence; but then the dis- 

 tance is too considerable for them to have"- been con- 

 veyed by mice. It is most probable therefore that they 

 were brought by birds, and in particular by jays and 

 pies, who seem to have hid them among the grass and 

 moss, and then to have forgotten where they had stowed 

 them. Some pease are also growing in the same situa- 

 tion, and probably under the same circumstances. 



CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES. 



IF bees, who are much the best setters of cucumbers, 

 do not happen to take kindly to the frames, the best 

 way is to tempt them by a little honey put on the male 

 and female bloom. When they are once induced to 

 haunt the frames, they set all the fruit, and will hover 

 with impatience round the lights in a morning, till the 

 glasses are opened. Probatum est. 



WHEAT. 



A NOTION has always obtained, that in England hot 

 summers are productive of fine crops of wheat ; yet in 

 the years 1780 and 1781, though the heat was intense, 

 the wheat was much mildewed, and the crop light. 

 Does not severe heat, while the straw is milky, occasion 

 its juices to exude, which being extravasated, occasion 

 spots, discolour the stems and blades, and injure the 

 health of the plants ? 



TRUFFLES. 



AUGUST. A truffle-hunter called on us, having in his 

 pocket several large truffles found in this neighbour- 



