17 AUGUST 1944, Page 18

COUNTRY LIFE

THE harvest field has lost little of its pictorial quality by the c of the cutter-and-binder, which after all is often horse-dra Contrariwise, the harvester-thresher, never perhaps to be used s widely, in Southern and Western England at any rate, has strip the harvest field of almost all its traditional beauty. It leaves sheaves, no shocks and more positively smothers even the tidy stub!, with a tangle of uncomely straws. What to do with this straw become a much-discussed topic. In Australia, where one form harvester just combs off the ears from the standing straw, and North America, where the harvester-thresher is in general use, habit has been to burn this straw. Though this may supply the with a small, a negligible proportion of potash, the method is alit wholly wasteful. The secret of all fertility is to restore to the grou as much as possible of what is taken from it. It will be a retrogr step if this crime of arson becomes common in England, and season even bean straw and pods are being burnt on the field. research workers desire a serviceable subject, let them find a for straw. It is already a drug even where older harvesting meth are in use, though essentially a really valuable product.