COUNTRY LIFE
An Easter Holiday
SUNT QUOS (Horace, odes L 1)
"Some may delight to watch the galloping horse, Some grow with football crowds vociferous, I am content to be where banks of gorse Glow, as a golden reef auriferous.
Some find their happiness in spending money
And deem the speed of car or 'plane ethereal : I am content to touch the heads of honey
Within my garden's Crown Imperial.
Let those who will play, scurry or carouse, Let nations wrestle for hegemony ; Amid the dappled sunshine of the boughs We hope to find the wood anemone." * * * *
Subsistence Production Great progress has been made of late in the fulfilment of an idea and a scheme for filling the leisure of those who have too much of it with profitable occupation. The scene is one of the narrow, difficult obstinate valleys of South Wales. Here a sort of communal farm was started for middle-aged miners who were out of work. The general idea is old and simple enough. Since the price of almost everything is chiefly the labour spent on it, a willing labourer should be able to get most of the requisites of life for next to nothing. So on the communal farm bought in the Eastern valley of Monmouthshire as it is named, the volunteer labourers at first bought their pound of carrots or pint of milk at the price of a half-hour's work plus a halfpenny in money. The example is imaginary, a mere illustration of the theory. This direct system has now been given up. The workers more or lass pool their work and buy the produce for money. The sum of unpaid labour of course reduces the price to a minimum. The basis of the idea is food production on a communal farm ; but it does not stop there. A balance is sought between husbandry and industry ; and perhaps the greatest and most distinctive advance has been made in industries. A bakery, of great proportions, is in being. The members make clothes, boots and in a small degree furniture ; and all this side of the scheme is growing in variety and quality. On the farm the Ayrshire cows give satisfactory supplies of milk ; the Wyan- dotte and Leghorn hens (especially the Lcghorns) give a satisfactory number of eggs. The difficult soil is made to yield vegetables of which Biggleswadc or Combe Martin would not be ashamed.
The Use of Leisure Clubs and societies exist, of course, in numbers in all unem- ployed areas ; and men practise crafts and grow food, each for himself and his family ; and this sort of work happily extends ; and it will extend. The communal farm is quite different in essence and makes many accomplishments possible that are beyond the individual labourer, such as the use of a central canteen or a great bakery. This is not the place to go into details of the agriculture or the industry ; but rather to emphasise the reality of the accomplishment ; and to point out that it may be done—and with much greater ease and natural advantages in other places. Two examples only, so far as I know, are in existence, one in the Welsh Valley, one near Wigan, where the farm progresses greatly and the industry lags a little. One sort of counter criticism is sometimes heard, both among workers and arm-chair commentators. They say that if worked out in terms of cash the labour is paid at a wickedly low rate per hour. No male gardener, no crafts- woman will accept the argument as an argument. When we grow our own lettuces or sweet peas we do not reckon the financial value of the hours spent on their cultivation. The maker of tapestry does not look on his finished work and say, " I was a fool to do it, as I find my work was paid at a farthing an hour." She rejoices in a thing of beauty and in hours pleasurably spent. We cannot measure the occupations of leisure with the foot-rule that we apply to hours of professional work. The art of life for everyone, but chiefly for the unem- ployed, consists largely in the profitable occupation of leisure ; and towards the furtherance of this art the "Subsistence Production" scheme in Monmouthshire and Lancashire takes a very high place. The communal workers are librement occupe, a phrase for which we need an English equivalent. A West Country Record In the West Country is a links which has given some of us peculiar pleasure, not because it is well fitted for playing the game of golf but because the rough and the fairway and the greens (pleasant English words of which golf players may be proud) are the haunts of many pleasing birds and many pleasing flowers. The errant ball may be found along- side a stonechat's nest or bunkered in the Burnet rose ; and even a ball well and truly hit may have bruised a butterfly orchid and disturbed a heath-blue butterfly. In many years' experience of this charming reach of dune and common it had never so much as occurred to me that the golf played there would make history ; but the other day was played the most remarkable round of which I ever heard. The professional had long striven to lower the record for the course, which has stood at 60. This spring, while playing with an old opponent, he completed the first seventeen holes in fifty-four. The last hole is short but blind. Between tee and green, so called, is a barrier of considerable altitude of sand and marram-grass. You can only cross it by aid of ladder-like steps. The player took great pains with his final shot that should put the record within his grasp. The blow was worthy and the ball sailed over the direction post ; but when the ladder was mounted and the hill beyond descended no ball was to be seen. Had a gull, as happens sometimes, carried it off ? No; it was lying all the while snugly in the hole ; and this astonishing round was accomplished in fifty- five strokes. Has any better score ever been recorded ? On the card were two twos and that final triumphant one. The bogey score for the links is seventy.
* * *
The R.S.P.B.
Everyone who is interested in birds will feel that the affairs of the Royal Society for their protection are his concern. The news of a certain warfare in regard to its organisation has become public property. The annual journal just published supplies answers to some of the critics (quorum pars parva fui). It must be remembered that some few districts, especially Norfolk and Ulster, look after their own birds and spend a good deal of money on their preservation. It may serve a purpose to contrast Norfolk on the East with Pem- brokeshire on the West, for the two counties are supreme in various regards. The R.S.P.B. spends over 170 a year in Pem- brokeshire, but receives only £40 a year from the whole of Wales, so that if the birds of the West are neglected in comparison with the birds of the East, the fault lies primarily with the inhabitants of the West. They should do more for their birds. The watcher matters most ; and a pub- lished plaint by the Secretary of the Norfolk Trust in regard to the crossbill indicates that the ravages of the egg-collector grow worse and worse ; while the law, which needs emen- dation does not allow policemen the right to challenge an egg-collector on mere suspicion and without a warrant.. The R.S.P.B. has had to spend 1100 on watching the nest of the odd pair of kites or so who still maintain a place among our native birds.
* * • * A Tuneful Brambling The affection of particular sorts of birds for particular bits of country is often surprising, especially when the selected part has no very individual features. An instance of an old example has been noticed in my neighbourhood this week. The district has long been remarkable for its attraction for the migrant brambling, a beautiful and interesting finch. The bird makes a frequent appearance in the very lively diaries, published a year or two back, written by William Lucas, a well-known Hitchin Quaker of his day. Ile duly recorded their winter arpearances from year to year. This year the birds appear to have changed habit a little. Very many were seen and heard late in the spring, not early in the winter. One was heard singing in March. How very rare it is for any winter migrant to sing in any real sense before he reaches his nesting quarters at the northern end of his journey. The common habit of the brambling is to leave the Midland and East Anglian counties (he rarely travels to the
extreme south) early in March. W. BEACH T11031AS
Previous page
