COUNTRY LIFE
SEVERAL of our garrison in Germany have expressed an admiring wonder for the respect shown by an underfed community for the crops of apples grown along public highways, which are a forbidden fruit up to a particular date. The habit of lining roads with fruit trees, which after all are at least as ornamental ,as other trees, is wholly admirable, as all confess; but the' reason given for not doing it in England is that the trees would be rifled by all and sundry before the fruit was ripe. Is there any good reason for this objection? Country people are very careful not to glean before the permitted date. Orchards on the whole are not robbed, and it is wholly remarkable how crab apples in the hedges are disregarded. If the roadside apples were established as a per- manent feature, a certain public spirit in this regard could probably be created; although of course the Germans were always more obedient than we habitually are to authority, the English are not a thievish people by temperament or habit. At any rate they might be given the chance in this regard. While we are clamouring for the cultivation of every inch of ground why should the roadsides—of which the area is immense— be wholly ignored?
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