COUNTRY LIFE ,
THE whirligig has brnught back -one old custom or habit to country places: As soon as the corn is cut gleaners go forth, not for the sake of the old yellow "gleaning loaves," but for the feeding of their poultry. It is an acute problem with all keepers of poultry, outside the farms, how to secure enough food for these birds. All sorts of food (some nearly worthless a question of mere husks) are bought at ridiculous prices. The stubbles have therefore become attractive. The pity is that many of the gleaners go furtively, while still the shocks ,pr stooks are in the field, and farmers are.-raid that these, too, are robbed. Time was in some parts of the country when the crier would go down the village street announcing that such and such a field was ready for gleaning ; and, lest anyone should take unfair advantage, a particular hour in the morning was announced before. which nobody might glean. The gleaning was then a festival, not an expedition to be made as furtively as possible. Much has been said about the difficulty of reaping this year's crops, but the only fields1 happen to have walked-through were cut singularly close, and scarcely a straw was left on the stubbles.
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