COUNTRY LIFE REFORMERS of the countryside (of whom, incidentally, countrymen
are n a little frightened, for many of their ideas are urban) will do well to consult sympathetically with Women's Institutes. And for this. reason. The women will add "the little more and how much it is." Reformer), for example, in the Scott Report and elsewhere, have urged large scheme, of drainage, water-supply and electricity. What many cottages are now suffering from is not the absence of such amenities from their distric but the refusal of cottage-owners to make use of them. In cottages familiar to me the refusal to make use of electric light and of water are due to three causes. In some cottages the absentee owner takes little or no interest in the property except as a source of income, and the agent is tempted to subscribe to his employer's view. In other cottages the owner, whose income consists almost entirely in rent, is too poor to undertake any capital expenditure. Thirdly, in the remaining cottage, the owner is just dilatory or obstinate. It is the final step that matter, most, and this will not be taken till the performance of the duties entailed by ownership are made compulsory. Today cottages which were officially condemned years ago are being let at extravagant rents by the device of leaving in them a few sticks of furniture. The labourers for whom they were originally built are wholly ousted.
Bee Lures I spent some while, during one of the days of interpolated summer. in watching the bees working busily among a company of crocuses. The patch was a tricolour of orange, white and purple. At first only the purple flowers were visited, later a few bees patronised the whites, and the saffron were wholly deserted. Day after day the same ratio of preferences was observed. There might be several reasons for such favouritism—as that the purple were a little later and carried more fresh pollen—but the experience seems to support the theory, very fully tested by Lubbock and detailed in his studies of insects, that bees have a strong preference for blue and kindred tints. They like, perhaps, the stronger colours, for one of their favourites (in my experience) is the blossom of the cotoneaster, with which they wrestle even before the red buds opened. So it is in early spring. Later in the year the lure of scent overcomes the lure of sight, and lime flowers become irresistible.
Layer A gift of food (collected by a hero of the characteristic name of " Yeo" came to me from Devon and proved most agreeable. The assurance was also given that it had great medicinal value, being rich in iodine, a substance in which the diet of inland people is said to be deficient. Incidentally, there are some oculists who begin to believe, amid general incredulity, that it exerts a beneficent effect on the faculty of vision. The food was laver, a seaweed found in good quantity along the shores of North Devon, as indeed in many places, but at this date, which is rather earlier than the full season, you must wait for the full moon to be sure of a good supply: it prefers the low rocks deeply covered at high tide. The weed needs a good deal of trouble in the preparation (though virtually none in the cooking) as it must be washed and washed and washed, but the trouble is worth while, and in most countries it would be treasured With us it is unprocurable except from local specialists by special request. What a deal of food is wholly neglected in this island. Among the omissions with which foreigners have at times chided us are included nettles, bracken, mushrooms of many sorts, snails, eels and coarse fish, coot and several other birds and seaweeds, which may be both good food and, as manure, good producers of food.
In the Garden In the retail shop of a famous seed merchant a long queue was slowly advancing to buy both flower and vegetable seeds. The percentage of expenditure on vegetable seed has increased, and the salesman told me that among vegetables once wholly neglected he had now a considerable sale for kohl rabi. The plant is easy to grow, and the seed germinates readily. Growers are advised to sow for succession, as the bulbous stalk should be eaten at a particular stage that does not last long, and the tendency to bolt may be pronounced. Bolted plants are enjoyed by hens In wartime it is well to remember that very young gooseberries and well bleached rhubarb need less sugar than older fruit and greener stems. Rhubarb has sprouted perhaps more prematurely than any other plant and may need protection if belated frosts should fall. Bee-keepers are reminded that their bees (like most birds) are likely to be more in want of food at this date than at any time of the year.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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