COUNTRY LIFE
THE harvest fields have taken on a likeness to those of Victorian and earlier days ; they are crowded, as seldom before, with gleaners, men, women and children, who mean real business. Some of them bring sacks that they can hardly carry when their work is done. The difference between today and yesterday is that what used to be gleaned for human food is now gleaned wholly for poultry. More is left on the field than in old days, because farmers, who have to watch the labour costs, are much more careless about raking and leave a deal at the headlands and edges crushed by the tractor wheels. Well, the grain is used, and that is what really matters. One curious little detail must have been noticed by many gleaners. Wherever bindweed flourished, the cutters and binders quite failed to gather the affected straws into the sheaves and so provided gleaners with a rich harvest.
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