COUNTRY LIFE

Fish and Flood The fish in our rivers should have a new lease of life, thanks to the renewal of the water if not to the floods. It is true that the coarse fishermen—with apologies for the phrase— whose season ends (on March 14th) about when the trout-fisher's begins, finished their season disastrously ; but a full river in the sequel benefits all fish. Some of the more sluggish streams, such as the Lea, had been progressively silting up for two years, and the mudbanks held poisons which killed trout and did no good to stronger fish. Other than chemical enemies to fish prevail when waters are low, in other countries as in England. I walked several miles along a charming trout-stream in the neighbourhood of Cordoba in Argentina, and saw not a fish. They had been exterminated by cormorant (not always a sea bird) and kingfisher. The poisoning of streams by the negative fact of insufficient water is a fact that should be realised by the Ministry of Health, a Government department very unpopular with fishermen. Arrangements for water supply which reduce the flow of water below a certain bulk may destroy the life in a stream as well as its scenic beauty. While we destroy trout-streams other governments (in Nova Scotia, for example) spend money and trouble in restocking the stream annually. In one respect only does the need for the urban water-supply fail to conflict with the interests of the angler ; there is good fishing—of a sort, from a boat—to be had cheap on some of the newer lake reservoirs.

*

Our Winter Population We reach a date when arriving birds pass departing flocks ; and the question arises how far they fill the gap. There is, I think, little doubt, though the point is impossible of any sort of proof, that the population of birds in England is considerably bigger 'in whiter' than in summer. We see and hear and think more of our summer visitors, of swallow, cuckoo, nightingale and the other warblers ; and the country Is denser then and the small birds more furtive ; but when we think of the congregations of winter visitors : starlings, field- fare, redwing; plover, pigeon, an and the crow tribe, the impression of multitude is an experienee wholly foreign to summer. The scattered pairs may of course add up to numbers comparable with these huge winter congregations, and it is possible that at the end of summer, when each nesting - pair is greatly multiplied, there may be a season when winter is rivalled. Certainly the nearest rival to February is July, just before the swifts retreat and August says to the cuckoo in doggerel : " Go you must."

* *

Bees and Mice Mr. Bee-Mason, a great authority, has told (in. The Field) a very strange story of a tragedy in a bee-hive. A mouse

that had made a nest in the roof was pursued by a weasel, which was stung to death by the disturbed swarm. It is my experience that the bee-hive has peculiar attractions for the mouse tribe. Though I have never kept more than an odd hive or two, I have found both field mice and dormice (now they say growing few) in the roof of. the hive, and in

no ease were the bees a penny the worse, though the hive was. One must keep. the bees warm ; and winter warmth IS one of the chief aims of full-time hibernators, such as the dormouse., and half or quarter-hibernators, such as the other mice and, indeed, rats. They are always on the look-out for cover, as . every gardener must . have noticed.. They seek shelter, even in rubbish heaped. up for a garden bonfire. The really hospitable gardener might well build what importers of foxes technically call stick-heaps for the denizens of his garden. In sonic parts of America box-homes are made for bats (for the sake of the destruction _of the mosquito) and in other places for the hibernating quarters of ladybirds, which, both . as grubs and beetles, are admirably destructive of the aphis. To return to the mice, is it true that the dormouse grows rare ?

Winter Washes

The time arrives when it will -no longer be possible even In the north to use winter sprays and washes. They grow steadily more popular ; and apart from their direct- effect

in keeping our trees and their fruit ,free from maladies, several unessential results have been noted. When used either early Or late, indeed at any time ahnost when the ground is not frozen, they kill the worms, and this possibly is not a good thing, though the range is too small to matter. They also kill deleterious creatures and scotch the grass where trees are grown in it. Happily the grass recovers and indeed may become peculiarly lusli. In the west country where virtually all cider apples are grown in grass orchards or paddocks grazed by stock, it has been discovered that they are a direct source of health. For example, the plagues that follow excessive graiing by sheep are virtually abolished in orchards where such sprayings are free and frequent. The washes, especially perhaps the tar-distillates, sterilise and purify the grasses and the soil.

* * * *

Sentimental Protection A plea has lately been raised in other places for scientific rather than sentimental bird protection. Incidentally, it has nothing to do with the recent reform of. the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. No one can object to a scientific attitude ; but, after all, the cry for preservation is first of all sentimental. We want to preserve birds, not because they are useful, but because they are beautiful and are a part of the nature that is our. setting. Take any bird, take the gannet, of which a scientific census has just been completed. It is a British bird as.to some 80 per cent. of its total member- ship. There were last year .10,000 nesting•birds -on the rock of Grassholme, one of the Pembrokeshire islands. This multitude consume a vast tonnage of fish. They must decimate some of the mackerel shoals ; and the young birds seemed able to swallow (and un-swallow) full-sized fish. I suppose that from a strictly scientific point of view they do a deal of harm and no particular good ; but when you have once seen a hundred or two of these great birds in majestic flight over the blue sea or watched one dive like a plummet you have per- manently in your memory a spectacle more vivid and lovely than was ever contained in any museum or gallery. The desire to preserve the gannets—all the 220,000 of them—is purely sentimental, and not the worse on that account.

* * * * Alpine or Rock?

. What is the meaning of Alpines or the alpine garden ? That most energetic society, the Alpine Garden Society (whose quarterly bulletin is a model of editorial skill) is finding its own adjective a nuisance. The rock garden (with the scree garden and what not) is, or may be, a very hospi- table place, welcoming bushes such as rhododendrons from the Himalayas, and water plants and even on occasioni her- baceous plants. It is supplied from low places as well as high, and from every quarter of the world. Even if alpine be taken as type of mountain country it does not apply to the rock garden ; and all sorts of plants are by. some called alpines that do not grow at any great altitude anywhere, and nothing better has been said on the subject than a quotation from Mr. Kingdon Ward, prince of plant collectors.

This bulletin, well decorated with a great number of beautiful photographs, bears witness on every other page to the catho- licity of gardens that we may not call either rock or Alpine. It is interesting to know—not from the bulletin itself—that a great plant-hunting expedition in which British rock-gardeners are asked to take a personal interest is being organised from British Columbia. It is thought that the Yukon and Alaska may provide a fair number of plants new to the rock garden and wholly suitable. The world has not yet been combed out by our botaniets.

*

Official Spring • The country has leapt forward into spring at a speed rarely seen in this island of quiet gradations, and will justify, the official date in the almanac.. The common,gorse is in blossom, the thrushes..are building, and in our gardens, especially in cottage _ gardens, the Crown Imperials, which surpass all flowers in sheer speed, of growth, have their staffs ready for

the open flags.. • - .

W. BEACH Mizoram.