COUNTRY LIFE
IT was suggested last lo.eck that the harvest of this year was likely to be ,
the earliest in the records, though it began later than some, because of the speed of its completion. In corroboration of this I watched the cutting of a field of wheat on the first day of August, so dry and mature that it was unnecessary even to put it into shocks. As one of the harvesters said: "You could stack it straight away." Things were very different where he came from, a place he described as "De Valera's country," and the number of harvesters who have come over from Ireland is, I fancy, large They work fast; and are not at their worst when the rabbits bolt from the last rectangle. This particular field of wheat carried wheat two years ago, and it is to be feared that national urgency has gone danger- ously far in promoting that suicidal policy, monoculture. However, all four grains arc likely to yield well, and the fourth, rye, seems to be growing rather less unpopular, though rye-bread is hardly a purchasable luxury, as I would call it. It has been grown on some of the ploughed-up commons, with great success, and, apart from its demand by biscuit- makers, its long, tough straw has several special uses.
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