RABBITS AND MEN
Sm,—A dig-for-victory plot on the edge of a golf-links was limed, planted and treated with artificials. Luxuriant heavy-green cabbages, sprouts and other vegetables resulted. To increase the family meat ration, part of this crop was fed to rabbits, who ate without relish, became apathetic and smelt unpleasantly. When later grass mowings were substituted the rabbits ate voraciously and became vigorous and sweet-smelling.
A correspondent writes : " Cabbages and sprouts grown too fast with nitrate and phosphate are a curious ' wrong' colour. If over 5o per cent. of the greenstuff given to rabbits is of this sort the rabbits die. Permanent pasture dressed with phosphate produces a luxuriant field. If the phosphate goes beyond a certain point the field takes on an unnatural green, and is deserted by wild rabbits."
Salesmen use this fact as a recommendation. One told me: " Use any soluble phosphate fertiliser and keep the rabbits away." Another said: " Use enough nitro-chalk and you will get big greens that rabbits will scarcely touch ; if they do, they die." Animal instincts may be sound guides to food values, which are actually soil values, because food is nothing more than the " conveyancing agent " or " agent of transfer " of the soil's qualities into the bodies of man and beast ; land in good heart supporting bodily health, vigour and stamina ; poor and unbalanced soils producing ill-health and debility. For instance, the liking of birds for hips, haws and many other hedgerow fruits has led to the discovery that these contain high concentrations of mineral salts, vitamins, and other essential food elements.
T. H. SANDERSON-WELLS 8 Neville Drive, N. 2. (Chairman Food Education Society).
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