The Natural History of Selborne

My Nep. Edmund White launched a balloon on our down, made of a soft, thin paper; & measuring about two feet & a half in length, & 20 inches in diameter. The buoyant air was supplyed at bottom by a plug of wooll, wetted with spirits ofwine, & set on fire by a candle. The air being cold & moist this machine did not succeed well abroad; but in Mr Yalden’s stair-case it rose to the ceiling, & remained suspended as long as the spirits continued to flame, & then sunk gradually. These Gent. made the balloon themselves. This small exhibition explained the whole balloon affair very well: but the position of the flame wanted better regulation; because the least oscillation set the paper on fire. Golden weather, red even.

Farmer Town began to pick his hops: the hops are many, but small.  They were not smitten by the hail. Because they grew at S.E. end of the village.  Hopping begins at Hartley.  The two hop-gardens, belonging to Farmer Spencer & John Hale, that were so much injured, as it was supposed, by the hail-storm on June 5th shew now a prodigious crop, & larger & 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 encreased the side-shoots, & improved the crop.  Query:  should not the tops of hops be pinched-off when the binds are very gross, & strong?  We find this practice to be of great service with melons, & cucumbers.  The scars, & wounds on the binds, made by the great hailstones are still very visible.