VEGETABLES. 361 



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 straw- 

 berry 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 re- 

 moved. 



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 distance is too consider- 

 able for them to have been conveyed 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 situation, and probably under the same cir- 

 cumstances. 



CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES. 



IP 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 



