26 APRIL 1945, Page 14

COUNTRY LIFE

ENGLAND had seemed utter paradise. It was difficidi .th:feel that any other spot on the sphere was equal to it; but in the rnidst of the-enjoyment came a letter from Florida, which began thus, so far as I could read it: "Opposite the window the Golden Tree (cassia fistula) is in bloom: and the white Butterfly Trees, the crimson Bougainvillea, the red clibiscus„ pink Azalea, blue Thunbergia. What a paradise of eternal summer. this is! " It all sounds a little flamboyant, but we have to confess that there are other paradises than "This other Eden, demi-Paradise." I suppose that if there were a competition for the -best round-the-Year climate, districts both on the west and east coast of North America would head the list. What we can claim is that England is best of all at its best, and that best we have all been enjoying for all this "proud-pied April," which indeed has put a spirit of youth in everything.

Ash and Oak

The spring, after promising to be late, has proved so abnormally early that some dates are worth recording. Hybrid Mays in my garden well to the north of London were in full blossom on April 14th, and the wild thorns not more than a week or so later. The fox-tail grasses were deep in pollen at the same date. While in the country we wondered at the earliness of almost everything, a visit to London revealed that the town was a week if not a fortnight earlier still. Urban lilacs had quite a fortnight's lead._ The only dawdler is the ash tree. My theory is that it is truer to date and less often influenced by the weather than the oak, so that it lags at a longer interval in warm than in cold springs. There is, I take it, no evidence that the relation of the burgeoning of these two trees is any indication of future weather. One of the difficulties involved in testing this popular prognostic springs from the impossibility of deciding which tree is in fact the earlier. This season, for example, very young ashes and saplings were in full leaf while the elder trees were still sulking. Big oaks were earlier than big ash trees ; young ashes earlier than the scrub oaks.

A Woodpecker Theory A correspondent makes a—to me—new suggestion about* the wood- pecker's music. "Here on the borders of Epping Forest woodpeckers nest every year, and at one time they fed daily from an oak tree fifteen feet away from the window, and brought their babies with them. At the top of this tree was a hard, dead upright branch which was used for the interesting vibration. I had many opportunities of watching the perform- ance; and there was no question that it was a beak performance." After this preface comes the new suggestion. "I never recognised the cock doing this, and "came to the conclusion that it was the hen calling for her mate, as he would often appear in response. The call would be repeated, if he did not come, once or twice, after which she would fly to another bit of dead wood and repeat the performance." The record is at least interesting.

White and Cobbett How Gilbert White would have enjoyed the Curtis Museum at Alton, not so far from Selborne. It now contains important' records Of the White family and some interesting letters of William Cobbett; but present con- gratulations are due chiefly to a new agricultural section. It has acquired an example of that very rare thing a "shawl" or shad, a sort of tray for scooping up corn and levelling. the top of the bushel measure, and a farrier's " twitch " made wholly of iron. How very interesting agricul- tural equipment may be has been proved to us of late by Mr. /vlassingham, whose admiration for the past extends to its implements and adornment. What is a tractor compared with a wooden plough?

In My Garden Some unusual things in the way of gardening are to be demonstrated by the Cloche Guild on May 5th in Surrey, to wit electrical soil heating (which probably has a future), and the growing by special means of chicory, egg-plants and peppers. Of these chicory ought certainly to be widely grown here, as it is in Belgium. It is one of the most wholesome as well as the most pleasant of vegetables. What a wicked waste to use it for spoiling coffee! Among flowers no other competes at the moment, at least in my garden, with the crab known as Eleyi. It is all red flower, and indeed its nature is red. The cherry-like fruits are red, but scarcely visible because of the extreme redness of the leaves. How compact of blossom are the wild crabs!

W. BEACH THOMAS.

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