COUNTRY LIFE
Candide's Recruits
Never within my memory have quite so many women and children been seen at work on allotments, though the number of new allotments has not been increased as it should have been. In my village the field that most resembl..:s Eden after the fall is the one field that belongs to the Parish Council ; and the thorns and briars do not represent a feather in the cap of such local councils. However, there are new recruits. Among those at work on allotments on the eve of Easter were the London children (whom Mr. A. P. Herbert desires to call by the horrible name of scatterers) and domestic ser- vants, not to mention veterans of promiscuous callings. What those who refuse to cultivate allotments do not understand is the response of the land to brief hours of work. In most months, except March, two or three hours of work a week will suffice for a to-pole plot. This estimate applies, of course, only to land that is " in good heart," as the' farmers say. Touching farmers, a cunning little device is being practised in the West. Farmers are mixing barley with the oats in order that the crop May not come under Government control, but be wholly available for their own stock.
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