On Star of Bethlehem and Blue Bottle. 179 



after noticed. The corn thus treated does not, at first, 

 grow so vigorously as in the common way. But as soon 

 as the roots have penetrated the rotting sod, and mixed 

 with the putrefying vegetable substances, the plant is 

 wonderfully rapid in its increase, and in its improvement 

 in colour and vigour. When the corn requires plough- 

 ing, the sod is completely decayed, and becomes a 

 manure. 



I was truly mortified by the discovery in this field, of 

 a new enemy, which defies all my efforts to subdue it. 

 Mixed with some compost, made, in part, of the clean- 

 ings of my garden, which had been spread several years, 

 were a few bulbs of that most destructive and uncon- 

 querable pest — the star 'hyacinth^ or wake o\lays^ as it 

 is vulgarly termed — from which the increase has be- 

 come ruinously great. It has resisted the attacks of two 

 winter exposures ; and I can now pick off the surface, 

 the bulbs unhurt, although those of the garlick are de- 

 stroyed in their immediate vicinity. I have left no en- 

 deavour for their extermination untried. Intermixed 

 with them are many of the garden blue-bottle ; also a 

 nuisance almost as indestructible, though not so pro- 

 lific. It is dangerous to mix the cleanings or ofials of 

 gardens, with composts intended for the fields. Flowers 

 innocent and grateful in the parterre, are often pests in 

 the field. But the one now mentioned, does not always 

 thus originate. I have brought this subject into view, 

 to gain more than gwe information. On inquiry I am 

 told, that thousands of acres, through the country, are 



^ Star of Bethkhevu'^lO o'clock. 



