COUNTRY LIFE
I MADE acquaintance this week with a bull-dozer, which entirely lives up to what I believe is its drastic name. It looks rather like the mask of a dragon-fly grub, and is not less well adapted to its savage function. With a loud roar it drives its mouth, a half-cylinder of steel, into the earth, swings two or three quick circles, shoves— it never pulls—several tons of earth into a wide crater's edge, till the old shorn tree-bole that it has thus encompassed is disclosed to the very roots. Then the beast turns and shoves the relic trunk over and out of its foundations. Next it circles round the crater's edge and pushes the soil—first the subsoil and then the top- soil—back into the great hole, dnd within a short half-hour the curse of Eden is reversed ; excellent level tilth prevails in place of land encumbered to the point of utter barrenness by the bases of destroyed tree trunks: worthless land is reclaimed ; and the bull- dozer (whose original lair is at Haddington, East Lothian), is the beneficent agent. I MADE acquaintance this week with a bull-dozer, which entirely lives up to what I believe is its drastic name. It looks rather like the mask of a dragon-fly grub, and is not less well adapted to its savage function. With a loud roar it drives its mouth, a half-cylinder of steel, into the earth, swings two or three quick circles, shoves— it never pulls—several tons of earth into a wide crater's edge, till the old shorn tree-bole that it has thus encompassed is disclosed to the very roots. Then the beast turns and shoves the relic trunk over and out of its foundations. Next it circles round the crater's edge and pushes the soil—first the subsoil and then the top- soil—back into the great hole, dnd within a short half-hour the curse of Eden is reversed ; excellent level tilth prevails in place of land encumbered to the point of utter barrenness by the bases of destroyed tree trunks: worthless land is reclaimed ; and the bull- dozer (whose original lair is at Haddington, East Lothian), is the beneficent agent.
Reclaiming Methods This particular experiment in land reclamation took place at Rothamsted, where a certain area of what was birch scrub a few months ago, is now under crops. This was for the most part pulled out by a powerful tractor. The eradication of the large tree trunks—the relic of trees cut down several years ago—was a more ambitious trial by the oldest and best agricultural station in the world. Whether such work can be done according to the formal tests of economy, I do not know. It depends probably on the nature of the soil and the species and size of the tree ; but reclama- tion, meaning a perennial source of wealth, is not a process to which it is necessarily wise to apply the strict gauge of economic sanction. In many pings the explosive cartridge, unhelped by clearance round the trunk, may be enough, and may be cheaper ; but this new machine undoubtedly has its place in the restoration of local Edens. Apart from this weapon, it is all to the good that our chief experi- mental station should be concerning itself with land reclamation, a subject that has many branches. The drain, and mole-drain, the bank, the ditch, the pump, the dumping of chalk and lime, and even clay—all are needed, and all need expert experiment, as in the days of Adam or Vermuyden.
Harpies An appealing letter reached me some weeks ago on the subject of jays -and green peas. What was a unarmed gardener to do to save his pods from total evisceration? I could find no good answer, but it seems to be supplied by a succession of strange events in a neighbour's garden. No fewer than four jays have destroyed them- selves in three or four rows of peas. These were well netted, and the jays, not to be denied, imprisoned themselves. Four were actually found dead, and one was caught ; the Retiarius conquered all round.
A Harvester's Pride The old type of agricultural labourer, who was proud of his simple skill, is not yet extinct even in the neighbourhood of Cobbett's Wen. While shocking or stooking last week one old man, following his annual practice, put a shilling on the gatepost and said anyone might claim it who found one of his sheaves wrongly sr up. He has not yet lost his money. There is only one way o setting up sheaves as bound by the cutter and binder ; and where i fails to tie the knot, as often, the loose sheaf must be bound by a straw bond that needs a considerably intricate splicing of m, wisps of straw.
In the Garden In answer to several correspondents, the purple broccoli corn mended recently is called the Purple dpe, but it will not be on ib market till next year. The seen of many plants of the cauliflow type, previously imported from Italy, is now being ripened English glasshouses. On the question of nuts, cultivated or wid the spilt shells are almost always empty. The fruit should gathered when the husks begin to brown ; but the squirrels will follow such advice. In one garden every nut was cleared from bushes a fortnight ago, and the ground beneath is closely carpe with green husks and shells. A grey squirrel's drey is conspicuo
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