COUNTRY LIFE
IT would perhaps increase the townsman's appreciation of the value of the land, if he saw the comfortable state of those who farm a few score of acres rather for pleasure than profit. The homesteads are populous with turkeys, geese, guinea-fowl, ducks and hens. From the daily supply of eggs many hundreds have been stored. The owners are virtually free from regulations. They do not demand the Government poultry rations, since they have abundance of grain and other food, not only for the laying birds, but for fattening the others. On some such farms a mixture of grains has been sown in order that regulations dealing with specific grains may be avoided. A large proportion of this stock never reaches either the markets or the neighbours. The holding is self-sufficing to the point of luxury, and the deficiencies of a war-time larder are totally avoided.
Vanished Fish
A party of ardent fishermen some few years ago walked along the bank of one of the streams that supply London with water and con- tinually ejaculated admiration of the pools and the shallows. They at once formed a syndicate, netted a certain number of coarse fish which abounded, and stocked the reaches with trout, which had been dwindling. The fry grew very rapidly, for the water abounded in suitable food, and many fine fish were caught. Today there are no trout and very few coarse fish. The water looks as attractive as ever, but it is poisoned. Dead fish, first coarse, then fine, were so many that dwellers on the bank used them for manure, and they are claimed as excellent for 'roses ; but that little compensation is now exhausted. We hear a deal of planning for a post-war Paradise. It is to be hoped that the purity of the streams will be considered. A very great many have been quite heedlessly poisoned. Even the crayfish have suffered.
Rights of Way
In regard to planning, a discussion is to take place this week on commons and footpaths and kindred subjects. A good many rights of way have been blocked by aerodromes and other military establish- ments; and that most energetic of secretaries, Sir Lawrence Chubb, has been busier than ever, if that is possible. Apart from the war the struggle to maintain public rights goes on, not always successfully. For myself I have seen the complete disappearance of the public rights on Lammas or six-months land, and the blocking of one footpath, without the raising of a single protest. The first application of the new "Access to Mountains" Act is likely to be seen in the neighbourhood of Snowdon, where through the public-spirited sympathy of Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis' farm-tenants, the landowner and the societies concerned with rural preservation are co-operating fruitfully ; and as a result foot- paths, indicated by proper signposts, are likely, we may hope, to be assured in perpetuity across some very wild and beautiful mountain scenery. Ramblers' clubs are particularly interested in this first application of the Act -
A Natural Philosopher A Scotch keeper was asked the other day by an ardent sportsman what he thought would happen to the grouse where the numbers would not be kept down by shooting ; and the breeding season. for grouse and partridge has been quite exceptionally favourable. Would disease ensue? His answer was that nature would look after that. What exactly did he mean? He -explained that wherever keepers were few vermin would at once increase, and that they would maintain the balance of nature quite as well as the absent sportsmen. Keepers as a class are, I think, better naturalists than their reputation. There are some doubtless, who will shoot barn-owls and kestrels, but a great many are admirable natural philosophers, like this Scotsman. I know of one water warden who approves of the otter, because it destroys sick fish and the eaters of trout-spawn.
In the Garden Many gardeners do not perhaps rely enough on seed. - One of the best things in a beautiful garden I visited last week was a border of the old almost single carnations. It was grown entirely from a forgotten packet of seed, collected in the owner's previous garden, seven yeats earlier. The long delay had not in the least diminished the percentage of germination. Among vegetables even such a perennial as horse-radish is a much better product, if treated almost as an annual, according to the general rule that the quicker a vegetable grows (as the French gardeners emphasise) the better it is to eat. W. BEACH Tuomas.
Postage on this issue : Inland and Overseas, id.
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