COUNTRY LIFE
Beneficent Drought
Three weeks and more of much sun and no rain have singularly failed to qualify the freshness and greenness of the English scene. Grass, grain crops and most tuber crops, and all the trees and bushes are as gay as if they had enjoyed daily showers. There are some sandy exceptions, but this is the rule. It is in such a summer that the English habit of giving the wheat a long lifeāit may be of eleven monthsāis most abundantly justified. Very few plants (except the specially xerophytic) delight in drought more thoroughly than wheat, if it has once established its roots. Even in spring- sown wheat on the prairies of Canada a little rain when the roots are forming will as good as ensure a fair crop, what- ever aridity may ensue. On the other hand, root-crops, so called, desire water early and late, though most of them are sun-lovers. The sugar-beet plant is perhaps the most efficient machine there is for the direct manufacture of sun- light into food. Victims to the drought are found in our gardens, and it has been necessary to water every transplanted plant or shrub ; but how very few things in the wild have done anything but rejoice?
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