78 O^xalis crendta Jacquin, 



for a crop ; except there be a total failure, and then the land 

 will be ready for turnips. It is folly to talk of sowing no more 

 seed than you intend to have plants upon the land. 



It is a common practice with a great number of farmers, 

 whenever a new plant is introduced, or a new method of 

 cultivating an old one, and a failure takes place, to condemn 

 the plant or the system at once; forgetting that the most 

 common crops fail in some seasons, and there is scarcely one 

 passes over but there is some part of the crops upon every 

 farm fails: therefore, we ought not to be premature in our 

 condemnation of any experiment. The soil in which I have 

 grown the corn is a light sandy loam, and far from being 

 fresh ; the situation is rather high, and exposed to the west 

 and north-west. In 1829 the season was rather wet and 

 cold here, particularly so when the plants were in bloom ; 

 and, in that season, only about one fourth of the crop came to 

 maturity, and some of the ears in this portion were imperfect. 

 In 1830 the season was, thi'oughout, wet and cold; not one 

 ear came to perfection. That season, I finished reaping my 

 other corn crops upon the farm on the 30th of September ; 

 last year, I finished reaping on the 31st of August, and 

 gathered my Indian corn quite ripe the 30th of September, 

 with the exception of a few ears which were neither quite ripe 

 nor perfect. The fowls found these before they got ripe, and 

 took every grain. I intend to continue my experiment, and 

 always to sow from the seed of the preceding crop. This 

 year I intend to sow on various kinds of soil. I consider the 

 straw quite as valuable as that from any other kind of grain ; 

 and the produce of grain will, I think, be near double that of 

 wheat from land of the same quality. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



William Rothwell, 

 Farmer and Nurseryman. 

 Spoilt Bank, near Bury, Lancashire, 

 Feb. 25. 1832. 



Art. XXV. On O'xalis crenata Jacquin, as a Culinary Vegetable 

 in Britain. By James Mitchell, Esq. 



Sir, 



I HAVE the honour to send you some tubers of the (Xxalis 



crenata, dug up, on the 5th instant, in the garden of Great 



Roper's Hall, near Brentwood, Essex. I was one of a party 



where some tubers of the same plant were cooked, by boiling 



