COUNTRY LIFE
Jr is said: "De Mutants non cutest lex "; but in war-time the law insists on some very minute details indeed. One of these concerning farmers is that each stack that is being threshed must be entirely surrounded by rabbit-wire of a 'matt mesh. By this means it is hoped to make a clean sweep of the rats and mice. The regulation is some. times obeyed; and it is interesting to watch the result. In one par. titular stack it proved the death of every rat, but the mice were extremely efficient in scaling the wire and in one way and another numbers escaped. At another stack, where no wire was erected, I watched a spaniel with delight, for the species has lo.ig seemed to me to be endowed with several of the qualities of Aristotle's magnanimous man. Incidentally, the anatomists say that the spaniel has the biggest brain-pan among dogs. The Springer which stood on the stack (and was very careful not to get in the way of the workers) caught every rat and was more than once severely bitten. It killed a few of the larger mice, but did no more than cast a pitying glance at the rest. As it happened several of that smallest and neatest g mammals, the harvest mouse, ran between the dog's legs when the very bottom of the stack was reached; and he looked at them with obvious interest, but made no attempt whatever to attack them. He was too good a naturalist, too proud a philosopher to do that. The great number of mice and rats in the stacks suggest that threshing machines should be greatly increased in number. Farmers clamour for them, often in vain; and they know quite well that every day's delay means so mud good grain destroyed.
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