Old Catalogues
When I was a boy, one of the delights of life was in looking through farm-catalogues supplied by seedsmen and the makers of cattle- medicines. The latter provided great entertainment because invariably they contained illustrations of the internal organs of horses and cows, and had drawings of grave-faced, bearded men kneeling by sick animals and doing the job of the modern vet. Many a wet evening passed quickly because I had one of these handbooks, and my memory is stimulated now because I have found one again. It has no lurid diagrams, but it recommends a score of things, from patent mole- traps, gins and snares to devices for forcing rats and rabbits out of their holes. It assures me that pheasants will return to the home acres after a day's shooting if they are fed a special preparation. Like the almanacs of my youth, it absorbs my attention as I think of lighting the fuse of a patent automatic bird-scarer. Somehow, as I read, I feel I am living in the days when my grandfather rode in a ,penny- farthing bicycle race and my grandmother's cheese-making won gold medals.
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