COUNTRY LIFE

A Miracle of Growth

Farmers smiled and the public gaped at a little marvel of productive capacity shown at " The Royal," held a week ago at Cardiff. Ten milch cows were fed for a fortnight on food produced within a little but measuring about seven feet by five feet ; and the food proved so congenial that the yield of milk steadily rose. The method has been known for some little time, but it has never been so persuasively illustrated as on this so-called " electric farm " within the show-ground. The device is simple enough. A stand, that may be compared with tiers of apple shelves, contains metal trays allowing about ten inches of head-room. These trays are spread with any grain, but Indian corn or maize is very much the best. The electric heat so stimulates growth from the grain that a white and green shoot of ten or eleven inches can be produced within eight days. Since no soil is required the whole of the plant is available for food, and it has been recently established—in the field as in the laboratory—that the younger the blade of grass the higher the feeding value. How far the results of little experiments can be translated into a wider sphere, how far a scientific fact can prove itself economically practical in common use, it is always difficult to say. Very many people, for example, having proved that a score of hens pay handsomely, have lost money on extending the experiment to a thousand or two ?

* * * * Hope in Electricity How far the provision of grain so sprouted and grown is ever going to prove of practical value to the farmer I dare not conjecture ; but the demonstration was singularly suggestive and stimulating to the imagination. Intensive cultivation has often in the past been condemned, even by its most ardent admirers, on the score of the labour involved. For example, Prince Kropotkin, in his historic little book, Farms, Factories and Workshops, looked forward to the regeneration of the world through intensive cultivation such as he saw in " The Valley of Glass " in the island of Guernsey ; but he was saddened by the intense and exacting labour demanded of the men who practised the so-called French-gardening system. It could produce a gross return of ,C700 or £Soo an acre, but at the cost only of unceasing toil. It is the crowning virtue of electric power in all its applications to the farm that it is a labour-saving ally. In every sense it may so reduce toil and discomfort that women and children even may do a man's work and not suffer. This has been proved to the hilt on the family farms that are seen all over Denmark. Electricity well and cheaply distributed can ensure a higher standard of life throughout the community. What a pity, I may say, what a sin that so many owners of cottage property utterly refuse so much as a consideration of supplying light or power to their cottages, even where these are grossly over-rented ! A switch could banish the darkness and much of the discomfort of tens of thousands of humble dwellings.

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Show Husbandry

A point that impresses every oversea or foreign husbandman who- visits England is that we perpetually and emphatically belittle our farms and their output, but at the same time organise shows that have no sort of equal the world over. The stock, the machinery and even such side-shows as the educational and research exhibits are all superior. Con- versely in Denmark, which is the recognised model of pro- duction on the farm, there is no national show at all. The capitalisation of these shows is absurdly high. The pavilions are of weight and stability enough to serve for permanent dwellings. The fact is that very many Royal shows are made an economic success by the flocking of urban populations. Suffolk is famous as one of the few counties which have won success for " the Royal," and a very salient success, almost wholly by rural energy and pride in local breeds. The moral perhaps is that the agricultural show is a useful agent for imparting the rural bias ; at any rate it helps to teach urban folk that only a very great and essential industry could produce such as exhibition. It also teaches visitors from overseas that farming in Britain is not so bad as Britons make out, nor in such low water. THE AIR RACE The dove was crooning in the thorn, And many a sweet song sung. The hare leapt gaily from the corn ; The partridge schooled her young.

When suddenly a devil voice Screeched near on stiffened wing And killed their quiet, comely joys In every living thing.

The dove hid silent in the thorn ; The wren's song stopt unsung.

The hare crouched. panting in the corn, The partridge cloaked her young.

And still when distant throbs descend Upon our peaceful scene, We pray some God may rise to fend The curse of man's machine.

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Bird Surveys

Two British birds are undergoing an inquest. One is the corn-crake or landrail about which the British Trust for Ornithologists is sending out a questionnaire far and wide. This very furtive bird has had abrupt ups and downs: For nearly a generation it seemed to be vanishing altogether,' at any rate from Eastern and Midland England. It was said that modern methods of cultivation had destroyed its nesting places. The bird seems now to be multiplying steadily. A year or two ago one came down into St. James's Park and stayed a day or two; and a good number were seen in the harvest- field, for example, in Huntingdonshire. It has always been a marvel how so poor a flier can compass a long migratory flight ; and the birds do on occasion collapse. They have been seen to crash from a considerable height. Yet the corn- crake is not so much a bad flier as a reluctant flier, and like several of its cousins it rejoices in the use of its legs and has a furtive instinct. One of the more curious questions asked is whether basic slag has proved offensive. The address of the special inquisitor is C. A. Norris, Grassholms, Stratford- on-Avon.

* * * * Starling Problems

A less formal inquiry is being conducted, under the influence of farmers, into the ways of the starling. We have all (not always to our pleasure) watched starlings, those harpies of the bird table ; but we still do not know very much about them. There is some reason to believe that a good number of our home birds do not breed. They are seen in small companies very early in the season ; and most of us have yearly evidence of their habit of dropping eggs casually on the ground. Our own birds are, of course, joined in winter by enormous flocks of winter immigrants, many of them hailing from Scandinavia. Do any of these ever stay to breed and do any home-bred birds migrate ? Starlings can be a nuisance. They may even kill the trees and shrubs of favourite roosts, but we know enough of their feeding habits to know that they are among the most potent enemies of deleterious grubs. That long, powerful, probing beak is a St. George's spur.

In the Garden A shrub that is just coming out into very full flower is the golden diplopappus or cassinia, and it has not the popularity that it deserves. Even in standard books on shrubs, such as Osborn's admirable and exhaustive Shrubs and Trees for the Garden, the shrub is not given its proper virtues. It grows readily from seed or cuttings. From quite a long distance the pungent honey-like scent reaches one ; and it attracts a number of insects, though it may not quite compare with the Buddleia variabilis, Clerodendron foetidum or Sedum spectabile in' this regard. Its colour and its heath-like form are unusual ; and late flowering shrubs are not excessive in number. It looks well at the back of a heath garden. The silver species seeds the more freely and grows more quickly, but it has none of the attractions of the gold or fulvous sort, which gives a welcome colour all through the winter. Among later flowering shrubs it is surprising that while the Rose of Sharon is seen everywhere, the several species of .bush Hypericum are often neglected. The great gold flowers common to both gain much from being