London to John O* Groat's, 243 



are something enormous. I would certainly recom- 

 mend every farmer to make his own experiments, for if 

 it succeeds, it will prove a great economy of seed ; and 

 drills to distribute it fairly are to be had." 



Truly one of Hallett's wheat ears might displace the 

 old cornucopia in that picture of happy abundance so 

 familiar to old and young. Here are twenty ears from 

 one seed, containing probably a thousand grains. The 

 increase of a thousand-fold, or half that ratio, is pro- 

 digious, having nothing to equal it in the vegetable 

 world that we know of. If one bushel of seed wheat 

 could be so distributed by a drill as to produce 500 or 

 250 bushels at the harvest, certainly the staff of life 

 would be greatly cheapened to the millions who lean 

 upon it alone for subsistence. 



From Oundle I walked the next day to Stamford, a 

 good, solid, old English town, sitting on the corners of 

 three counties, and on three layers of history, Saxon, 

 Dane and Norman. The first object of interest was a 

 stone bridge over the Nen at Oundle. It is a grand 

 structure to span such a little river. It must have 

 cost three times as much as "The Great Bridge" 

 over the Connecticut at Hartford ; and yet the stream 

 it crosses is a mere rivulet compared with our New 

 England river. " The bridge with wooden piers " 

 is a fabric of fancy to most English people. They 

 u :_> 



