COUNTRY LIFE
IN the shire of Hertford, which has been singularly successful (thanks chiefly to some large landowners) in keeping its rural charms, some residents are distressed that it is to be included in the Greater London plan now being hatched by Mr. Abercrombie. The plan could not be in better hands. We all owe a great debt to that wise and skilled pioneer. There is good reason for local fears, nevertheless ; and this example of the planned association of town with country has a wide application. The country is much more likely to be urbanised than the town ruralised. When the second Garden City was founded, its organisers pointed with pride—and emphasised to me personally—the plan of an agricultural belt. It was even argued that it would supply fresh English flour to its own city. The prospect was inspiring at first blush, but the inevitable happened. The agricultural belt faded softly and silently away: the builder beat the farmer. Just so in anticipation of the coming plans. A charter for farmers and urban holiday makers is foretold in a single clause. Are the two compatible? What does happen is that hayfields and some- times cornfields are trampled, gates left open, hedges broken and favourite spots for picnics littered with paper, bottles and other refuse. Not seldom fires are started. The paper plan is one thing, the administration another and a much more important. The same point must be stressed in regard to cottages. The Scott report (which is excellent) demands the provision of light and water. In places very familiar to me they are now available; but the few yards between the wires and pipes and the cottage rooms remained unbridged.
Migrant Eels
Perhaps the greatest marvel in the story of migration is the two years' journey of the young eels from Atlantic depths to inland rivers and ponds and the return journey of these strange fish when they desire to breed. The tale is widely known, and yet again and again—as last week—the appearance of large eels in inland ponds is queried as a miracle. Eels, of course, can travel overland as well as in the water. Fish occasionally and mysteriously appear in ponds, doubtless from spawn dropped by birds. Since the eels do not spawn within a hundred miles of the shore, the eels arrive by direct travel over the surface of the land in wet weather. The way of an eel is rather more wonderful than the way of a snake which set Solomon wondering, but it is understandable.
Unreasonable Birds
Three queries from very different quarters but on the same subject have recently reached me. One comes from an observer near Harlech, who has watched daily at particular hours the arrival of seventeen curlew at the same place in the same field. A soldier in like manner has daily wondered at the punctual arrival of a large number of gulls opposite his army but at Hounslow. A third enquirer wonders at the daily gathering of rooks on a certain grass field. In none of the three cases were the birds seen to be feeding. What is the special cause of this iterated behaviour? Birds, of course, are wont to feed and roost at particular times of day. Perhaps duck and those early breakfasters the geese are the most regular. Those who " flight "—a form of sport that ought not to be repeated in the same place at a near interval—can often foretell exactly when duck and some waders will leave a favoured feeding ground for a dormitory. Partridge coveys often have quite definite feeding hours on particular fields.' Apart from such habits, birds fill their leisure capriciously, and the only answer to the question why they gather at certain trysts is that of a famous journalist who was asked why he had started a weekly paper in rivalry to one he already owned_ He replied, having a cold in the head: "Oh, a bere whib." Birds are clever, but not always reasonable. They indulge in mere whims.
In the Garden November is the great month for the transplanting of most deciduous trees, bushes and some lowlier plants ; but since the weather and state of the ground are as important as date, and the whole period from November to March is available for the process, it is best on the whole to watch rather than fix a time-table. However, autumn planting is better than spring planting by general agreement, though with some evergreens the rival merits of October and April are still sometimes disputed as in John Evelyn's time. Advice on the technique of trenching or double- digging has been frequent of late ; but it is worth notice that deep digging for garden crops is not necessarily wise. At one research station recent experiments have suggested that it may be a mistake. The top spit matters most in any case.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
Postage on this issue : Inland and Overseas, td.
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