APPENDIX. 117 



a large leaf, overshadowing all around, and shutting 

 out the sun, light and air so much that the vine can- 

 not grow. On one occasion I set out vines among the 

 flowering fern and in about three or four years the 

 sods of vines could not be found. Close by the side of 

 this was a large bed of vines, covering nearly a quartei* 

 of an acre of ground, (except four or five little places of 

 a few yards in each), which was flowering fern or buck- 

 . thorn. In order that the ground might be compara- 

 tively covered with vines, I cut up and carted this 

 buckthorn to the upland, and set sods of vines in its 

 place, expecting that they would some day take the 

 place of the buckthorn. In this I have not been dis- 

 appointed, for these plats are loaded with the lajgest 

 fruit; so thickly do the berries lay this day, that in 

 some places they would, if collected and laid upon a 

 level place, completely cover the ground. But this 

 quarter of an acre of vines in a few years was gone, 

 except a few stray runners ; the flowering fern had 

 taken their place, and the plats I set out are only left to 

 tell where the original bed of vines stood. Now I do 

 not suppose that in every situation and kind of soil 

 that this fern would supplant the place of the vine — 

 although in this case it did. I have several small plats 

 of ground besides, one containing some fifty square 

 rods, the turf containing the roots of the buckthorn. 

 I cut in strips about fifteen inches wide, and set it up 

 edge-wise to dry. These were burnt when dry and the 



