From Searles Valentine Wood   16 July 1866

My dear Sir

Most probably you are aware of what I am going to tell you but if not it may be interesting. A friend of mine has a relation a farmer in Cambridgeshire who I am informed regularly sows Oats which are fed off the first year & the stalks are permitted to remain in the ground during the Winter. these come up Barley in the following Summer & this mode of husbandry is commonly adopted on that farm.¹ If you sho^d be unacquainted with this method of raising a crop of Barley & wo^d like me to obtain for you further particulars I shall have great pleasure in doing so so that you might yourself verify the fact

I will also mention another circumstance (curious to me) of which I have been informed by an old resident in New Zealand viz that they get the finest Peaches out of the Bush Country grown there on Trees which have sprung from Peach stones thrown away by the Natives without any culture²

Yours very truly | Searles Wood

Cha^s. Darwin Esq.