COUNTRY LIFE
IT should be no little comfort to those gardeners, and they are legion, who see their beds overrun with weeds to be told—and by scientific persons on scientific grounds—that these pests are friends in disguise. The new theories about the beneficence of weeds are largely the result of the discovery that moulds of various sort are agents of fertility, that most roots cannot flourish unless the appropriate moulds and funguses are present. Pursuing this theory, a writer in the Field, in an article given no little prominence, asserts roundly that three of the most pernicious of weeds (as we have hitherto held) are the best purveyors of the necessary moulds. The three quoted are the -hawkweed, which seeds and grows with devastating perfection ; the dandelion, most deeply rooted of weeds ; and the buttercup, perhaps the hardest to eradicate— all of which, it is suggested, should be grown alongside our vegetable crops. If this is done, shallots, for example, grow bigger and develop better keeping qualities. Previously all sorts of almost mystic qualities have been attributed to half a score of weeds if added to the compost heap. Most of such claims are at least difficult to believe. Will not some great botanist—say, the new and immensely learned head of Kew Gardens—set on foot a really scientific enquiry into the subject, or is science too incredulous to think the enquiry worth while?
" Welcome Waterspouts "
Whatever may be said to the discredit of English weather, it usually happens that we can make on the swings what we lose on the roundabouts. Last year we had a period of drought that not only dried up many wells, but caused whole streams—the Mimram, for example—to disappear in their upper reaches. The wet spell which, to the despair of our farmers who wished to plough, to dig. potatoes, to sow autumn grain, followed the drought has quite suddenly refreshed the springs. Wells—in Hereford- shire, for example, as in many other places—have filled up, and it is not too much to hope that the springs of the rivers will bubble again. On lower reaches, valley springs are marvellously forceful, as the gatherers of watercress have discovered, for most of the beds are fed from separate springs, not from the stream itself.
Cultivation of Wild Creatures
It is interesting to discover examples of the influence of cultivation— and indeed war—on wild creatures. All sportsmen have had proof of the beneficent effect of moie intense cultivation on the population of partridges. It has also brought plover to districts where the bird was almost a rarity. There is, for example, one area of Buckinghamshire that was once very rough grass but is now tilth. Indeed, one of the roughest and poorest of the grass fields has been found to be ideal for market garden crops. Over all this area are now to be seen—or were before the snow fell—huge flocks of the green plover, the most beneficent bird that works for the farmer. Incidentally, golden plover also have been unusually numerous: in the South.
How Do They Know ?
The perfection of the intelligence department among birds has surprised most observers. Several examples have come my way recently. A friend on the Clyde found that several tons of green tomatoes, stored for ripen- ing, had been cut by frost, and they were thrown away. Without so much as a day's delay the heap was raided by great flocks of redwing and fieldfare. So in the yard of a cider factory, the reject apple-pulp is every year at once discovered by herds of greenfinch, a species most notorious in the seed-growing districts of East Anglia for its knowledge of the date when mangold seed is ripe. In our gardens no birds seem to have quite such an extensive and peculiar knowledge of our seed-bearing bushes as the blackbirds ; and it is chiefly displayed when the frosts begin. The berries are preserved against that hungry prospect.
In My Garden
Snow almost prohibits the open garden, but there are things which may be done. Frequent days well-fitted for spraying with winter washes have been provided, and no condition for this work is more necessary than stillness. A good many flowers that look as if they had been half- destroyed by frost and snow will revive if plucked. For example, from the West Country I hear of a gorgeous bowl of roses picked in a miserable frozen state, and one gardener has a charming spring-like bowl of the naked Jasmine and Iris Stylosa, always a lovely combination.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
Postage on this issue: Inland, lid.; Overseas, Id.
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