5 JANUARY 1940, Page 24

Tidy Snow After the snow fell a certain head gardener

said to his three under-gardeners who had no very obvious jobs : "Now go and have a look round. I've never seen the garden look so tidy! " Autumn has been called the worst of the litter-louts. Snow is always a beautifier till the thaw comes. And it is a benefactor. At the moment it has completely saved the farmers' wheats from the attacks of starlings, larks and other enemies, and it will prove a godsend to recently ploughed- up pastures which will thereafter crumble the quicklier to a congenial tilth, and be rid of the wild seeds that have germi- nated. On the other side of the picture a good deal of desirable green vegetable has perished, but even in the cabbage patch the snow has done something to protect plants from the frost that followed the fall.