- Country Life

WHEAT AND MILK.

AN eminent farmer recently prophesied the coining of a: "world shortage" (the grammatically horrid phrase must be used) of wheat. -Mr. Carter has since then told the British Association that there now exists and will continue to exist a deficiency of milk throughout the world ; and the fact vitally concerns the health of every man, woman and child as consumer, and the pocket of every farmer as producer.

If wemay accept these two statements, we can scarcely despair of the industry of farming, even in urban Britain. Theoreti- cally at least both wheat-growing and milk-producing should pay well. The truth is that both do actually and in fact pay well. Money in large quantities is made by their sale. The trouble is the old one that the man who makes the money in this middleman's paradise of ours is the distributor rather than the producer. The fault is the farmer's. If half the energy spent by his Union in political propaganda were spent in organizing farmers' co-operation, the middleman's grip on his industry would have been relaxed long ago. If only a Sir Horace Plunkett could have led the N.F.U. !

* * Here is a true little human story, illustrating the general

theme. Two vigorous young men who were friends migrated south from Glasgow. David decided to keep cows in Bedford-. shire and Jonathan to sell milk in London. Within a very Short time Jonathan became easily rich while David struggled hard. Both married and had sons, who continued in their father's profession as partners ; but the joint influences of town and wealth presently destroyed the clan of Jonathan. The last member vanished just about the date when David, enjoying a green old age, saw his vigorous sons at last extract a good livelihood, and something more, from their 1,000-gallon Cows. One of the morals of this moral tale is that we must judge of farming over a long period. It may be that the golden years are coming. But the gold will be of low carat at the best if farmers consent to be ruled from Covent Garden 'and other London centres.

* * Incidentally Mr. Carter—the scientific enthusiast for butter- fat—apologized for urging the production of more milk on the ground that it meant a retrograde step from arable to grass. The man of science has fallen into a fallacy. The proper dairy farm employs as many hands as the grain-farm ; and Denmark has abundantly proved—as Mr. Christopher Tumor was alert to prove in Lincolnshire—that more cows can be kept on amble land than on grass, at any rate on the sort of permanent green covering to the soil that some British farmers mean by grass.

A GREYHOUND'S MIND.

Some curious points in the mentality of dogs have been unnoticed, but are well worth consideration, in reference to the new rage for greyhound racing. The greyhound is more exclusively in the grip of mere instinct than most other dogs. Like the whippet, which has been closely bred for many gener- ations exclusively for racing, it is possessed by the zest of its own speed. Whippets "run to the cloth," as the phrase is, with as much abandon as if they were chasing a rabbit. The trainer stands at the winning-post waving a cloth and to that the dogs will strain with every fibre of their being. So with a greyhound. It is a commonplace with some of those who breed the variety, that "the greyhound who thinks is lost." Thought is as ruinous for his specialized purpose as the use of that thinking sense, the nose. He cuts corners, waits for the other dog to turn the hare, and permits himself other unwanted tricks. Some greyhound breeders think that the electric hare will quite destroy the dog's use for other purposes by teaching it to think. Others are inclined to believe that very soon there will be no need for any hare at all, electric or other; and the dogs will be ready to race auto- matically,- exactly as they have been taught. The quarry is, or soon will be, a merely picturesque addition.

* * * *

THE PRICE OF A DOG.

The vogue of the sport has had several rather surprising results. The Americans, who invented the game, have bought some of our best dogs ; and prices have readied as many as

four figures. This and the extra demand have disclosed the deficiency of good dogs in the country. They cannot be raced very young and it is harmful to them to race very often. Therefore the deficiency must continue for some two years, but so many people, with small studs, are beginning to breed that two years hence we should be in a position to respond to the demand of the export trade in greyhounds. It will be interesting to see if the speed of the dogs increases in response to the new demands on their powers. The best dogs are very carefully "clocked." It may be that the greyhound will increase in size as the thoroughbred horse has increased since the days of the early Arabs.

A GREAT FISHERMAN.

Few, if any, journalists of our day have made more persi nal friends by their writings than Mr. R. B. Marston, who just before his death completed fifty years of editorship of the Fishing Gazette. He felt himself a friend of all fishermen, beginners or specialists either ; and would take infinite trouble to help fellow-craftsmen, though he knew nothing of them but their names. There is a quality in fishing, more potent perhaps than in any other sport, that inspires one craftsman with a sense of friendly fellowship with another ; and it was this sens,t of friendship more than the technique of the art that Mr. Marston cultivated with peculiar zest. But he was capable of righteous indignation, even against fellow-fishers. It was, for instance, dangerous in his prox- imity to suggest that a case had not been fully established against road tar as a poisoner of rivers ; and his zest in the cause drove him into long and ardent correspondences. How very many people will miss those letters, whether they were for private or for public circulation ! It was perhaps in no small degree due to him that the number of fishermen (and the price of fishing rights) multiplied in so startling a fashion after the War.

FISH FOR PROFIT.

On the subject of coarse fishing a correspondent asks why we cannot, in Britain as in Germany, cultivate coarse fish in ponds as a source of food. Someone calculated that a half-acre pond of water ought to give an annual yield of over £30 in food ; and that this return should be very nearly nett, since the expenses were negligible. The objection is that fish are greedy ; and only grow well when food is plentiful. In a pond they soon utterly consume the available capital ; and as soon as they have to be fed regularly the expenses may at least equal the receipts. However, the Germans have overcome this ; and it is an example of very remarkable enterprise on their part that they can make profit by buying elvers in huge quantities from our Western rivers. The eel is certainly a fish-like beast that we do not appreciate in Britain, as in Belgium and Germany, where it is a most popular form of food. It is surprising as there are few, if any, rivers in Europe comparable with the Severn as an attraction for eels. Those strange migrants from the Atlantic, the half-grown elvers, come in shoals as great in multitude as the warblers and swallows.

LIGHT AND HEALTH.

We all know what an admirable influence on the health ot animals at the Zoo is exerted by the new Vita-glass and by artificial sunlight. It is less well known that the health of many small birds, especially from warm countries, has been secured by longer hours of mere light. Simple electric light served. I hear now that the new, and wonderful, com- pany of humming birds are faring better than was expected, largely owing, perhaps, to increased knowledge of the management of light as well as of temperature: Regent's Park is becoming an epitome of the climates of the world, as we:1 as of its denizens. This art of imitating climates is being very successfully practised at Rothamsted also for the cultivation of the lower forms of life--of the insect and the fungus. The new greenhouses are local tropics in all essential

attributes.

W.. BF:ACII THOMAS. ,