VAEIOUS PARTS OF NATURE 351 



and poles, in pruning the superfluous shoots, &c., but lately I 

 have observed a new circumstance, which was a neighbouring 

 farmer's harrowing between the rows of hops with a small 

 triangular harrow, drawn by one horse, and guided by two 

 handles. This occurrence brought to my mind the following 

 passage : 



ipsa 



" Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos." Georgic II. 



Hops are dioecious plants : hence perhaps it might be proper, 

 though not practised, to leave purposely some male plants in 

 every garden, that their farina might impregnate the blossoms. 

 The female plants without their male attendants are not in their 

 natural state : hence we may suppose the frequent failure of crop 

 so incident to hop-grounds ; no other growth, cultivated by man, 

 has such frequent and general failures as hops. 



Two hop-gardens much injured by a hail-storm, June 5, shew 

 now (September 2) a prodigious crop, and larger and fairer hops 

 than any in the parish. The owners seem now to be convinced 

 that the hail, by beating off the tops of the binds, has increased 

 the side-shoots, and improved the crop. Query. Therefore 

 should not the tops of hops be pinched off when the binds are 

 very gross, and strong ? 



SEED LYING DORMANT. 



The naked part of the Hanger is now covered with thistles of 

 various kinds. The seeds of these thistles may have lain probably 

 under the thick shade of the beeches for many years, but could 

 not vegetate till the sun and air were admitted. When old beech 

 trees are cleared away, the naked ground in a year or two becomes 

 covered with strawberry plants, the seeds of which must have 

 lain in the ground for an age at least. One of the slidders or 

 trenches down the middle of the Hanger, close-covered over with 

 lofty beeches near a century old, is still called strawberry slidder, 

 though no strawberries have grown there in the memory of man. 

 That sort of fruit did once, no doubt, abound there, and will again 

 when the obstruction is removed. 



