2O4 A Walk from 



this stage of its action, it may be the same general law 

 of development which we have noticed, only carried 

 forward to a more advanced point of progress. I would 

 commend it to the deep and serious study of naturalists, 

 botanists, or to those philosophers who should preside 

 over the department of investigation to which the sub- 

 ject legitimately belongs. I will only say what I saw 

 with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. Here, 

 I repeat, was a large field of heavy grain, ready for 

 harvest. The head and berry were barley, and the 

 stalk and leaves were oat ! Here, certainly, is a mys- 

 tery. The barley sown on this field was the first-born 

 offspring of oats. And the whole process by which 

 this wonderful transformation is wrought, is simply 

 this, and nothing more : The oats are sown about the 

 last week in June ; and, before coming into ear, they 

 are cut down within one inch and a half of the ground. 

 This operation is repeated a second time. They are 

 then allowed to stand through the winter, and the fol- 

 lowing season the produce is barley. This is the plain 

 statement of the case in the very words of the originator 

 of this process, and of this strange transmutation. The 

 only practical result of it which he claims is this : that 

 the straw of the barley thus produced is stouter, and 

 stands more erect, and therefore less liable to be beaten 

 down by heavy wind or rain. Then, perhaps, it may 



