3 AUGUST 1945, Page 18

A Blue Harvest The harvest is good, but harvesting slow.

In my neighbourhood Ian girls were engaged as an advanced guard to the cutters-and-binder and found the work hard. Their instructions were to lift the heavy oa flattened by the great thunderstorm, into a semi-vertical stance. Ev where such work was not done, the machines could only work in o direction, and the speed of the operation was more than halved. Muc of the wheat stood up against the buffeting by wind and weather. Drivi along the line of the Icpeild Way, where it is lifted just high enough command the fruitful plain towards the North, I- thought that I ha never seen the colour of the corn of so deep a gold in the gener view, and a closer inspection showed how large and full were individual ears. As to Continental harvests, a soldier just back fr Germany and Belgium tells me that he was astounded by the primiti methods still employed. German farm hands were cutting the rye vn a sort of one-handed scythe, traditional in the neighbourhood. I hay watched such reaping in Belgium. Many fields there are not golden b blue. Over considerable areas the cornflowers are as thick as char! in the very worst-fanned fields in England.