Missing a Butt
A writer in “Bye Gones” for 1892 says:—
“The other day in going through Mid-Cardiganshire on election business, I observed one row of turnips growing in the middle of a field of potatoes on a farm occupied by a Nonconformist minister. When asked how it happened that that solitary row of turnips came to be there, the minister explained that by accident the planters missed putting down potatoes, and the idea prevailed in the district if the vacant row was not filled in by sowing something in it, some one would die in consequence in the neighbourhood.”
This superstition is also found in Carmarthenshire as well as in Cardiganshire.
I have met with many ministers of the Gospel, Professors of Universities, and other enlightened and educated men who are convinced that there are death portents.