COUNTRY LIFE
. , Fur Coats for Animals To a holiday camp, in Sussex, for town children, a farmer brought a, rabbit or two to help fill the pot. A small London chid whohadonly known a rabbit as a thin, unlovely pendant. in a butcher's. shop, said : .!`-He's not going to giye ft us with its fur coat, is he " We .are always hearing. of the need for. education With a " rural bias " in country schools-;but perhaps it is the urban school child that needs such bias. Some of the children do not even associate milk with COWS. If the. consumer was in sympathy with, the prOdUeer, half our economic troubles wouldbeautonaatically on the way to solixtimi., The depth of Urban ignorance of rural things has never yet been probed by any reformer.
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British Ponies The cult of the pony has revived beyond all expectation in England. Indeed, riding itself has revived. As soon as the prophets began to say that people would forget hoir to walk, then hiking suddenly became the vogite and hostels to accommodate walkers were built all over the country. So when the motor should haVe killed the horse, riding became a popular pastine, and riding schools began to Multiply in most parts of the country. Pony-breeders were advised to give up the vain endeavour on the eve of a. date when classes for ponies at most agricultural shows were being better filled than ever before. A gOod many country- house owners nioWlend their parks for meetings of the pony etas, generally 'under encouragement from the hunts, who send-experts, VI:teach the assembled children the .finer arts Of 'horsemanship A number of children and their company includes girls of the. very tendereif years., Many of these infants 'attend the early morning meets of the cult- hunters who have begun operations in spite of summer weather. Perhaps the cubhuntera begin too early in, the year and the babies too early in life, though this "youth movement " on to the back of a pony is all tO the good * Western Breeds . • One may hope and indeed expect that the pony -clubs will call more attention to the excellence of the several breeds of British pony. The " Keltie fire " of -the Welsh pony is unparalleled in any breed, even in the Arab. - The mealy- mouthed Exmoors, which can be bought by- the- truck load' for a song at Bampton Fair, are often singularly true to type in .stature and colour as in finer qualities. The New Forest pony is almost a native. wild animal. It breeds along- side the deer and (as motorists know .to their danger) has the free run of the forest, not excluding the roads. it is worthy perhaps of more scientific breeding than it usually receives: Most countries have their special ponies, with special qualities. The; Boer> pony is scarcely paralleled-the world over for its powers of endurance and weight carrying. An absurdly small animal will carry a grown man all day and not weary. The light-coloured Norwegian ponies are singularly patient and long-enduring in harness. The -list might be indefinitely continued ; but no country has a greater diversity of breeds than-Britain, and most of them are distinguished for stamina. Some of the pit ponies, for example, are still capable of work at thirty years old... . * * *• * An Artist's View It is a welcome Sign of the revival of the pony that Mr. Seaby has turned' his attention from the biped to the quadruped. He is 'among the best of our naturalists, ha.s seen with his own-eyes' every species of our birds in its native haunt, and drawn them all with truth and vivacity. The eye that can catch the turn of the-wing in a dipping woodcock has proved as keen in' indicating the paces of a Welsh pony. He has followed the example of Mr. Lowes Luard who spent years in analysing the paces of a horse before he wrote his really classic thesis on the. Subject.' Mr. Seaby's book, British Ponies (A. and C. Blick,-12s. 6d.)- is a triumph not. of science but of art; and the children are as charming as the ponies, when he dePiets the ridden and not the wild animal. May I suggest that he does a like service for British deer, which have been much neglected, and the so-Called wild-or primitive types of cattle might be included ? We have so few large mammals in this island thatwe should 'Mike the MOst of those ive have. A successor to J. G. Millais is much wanted.
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Lawn Technique .
At one of the research -stations for the study gitase3 a new little device has been practised and is presently to be recommended 'to those who have lawns. ' Just as Mr. Gladstone used' to have a nice line of bright axes laid ready in the-Hall for his guests" recreation, so the owner of lawns is advised to lay out edging tools of the sort with a sharp crescent blade. The guests so armed will proceed and gentl tap the grass at intervals of half an inch or so with the edge of the blade. It is claimed that in this way the creeping grasses which defy the mowing machine are cut, that all coarser grasses and weeds are discouraged and that in effect the finer grasses begin at once to triumph over their corn:. petitors. The process does not of course kill the invincible plantain, or dandelion or buttercup, but' it giVes space fdr grass in their imirbetliate neighbourhood. The new device is in accord with the general faith of lawn keepers that the more you " savage " a rebellious lawn the better. Brutal raking has been the cure for moss and creeping grasses and is there any machine that looks more dragonish, more like a juggernaut, than the spiked roller now generally advised chiefly for aerating purposes ?
* * * * A -Tortoiseshell Year . . . „ .
Yet more records reach me of the reappearance of the greater tortoiseshell btittertly, perhaps the haridsoniest of all, or so we should say if its smaller cousin, which has much
the ' some markings, were net cominon.. It seems' to me Conti-miler than ever 'this SePteinber.. At the end of a bed of michaehnas daisies is one -Small plant of a very big-floWered plant' of bright mauve: Each flower head is • over an inch across ; and this spitelonSnes; iogethei: with the colour and perhaps 6:5 a finer sense the scent Wan lbi.e.-1 sistible lure.' 'The 'moment the Suit shines it is 'iniothered with tortoiseshells' which often vanish in a flash when a cloud comes over the 'Stin. I have seen 'their' jostle One another On a single 'bloom and sometimes, • so it seems, they ad not distingUish- the open wings of ariother butterfly frOm the petals on Which it is perched, 'so bright are both rival -colours: More than once I halie seen one alight by the side of a bumble bee's which quife disappears under the tortoiseshell wings While both suck honey regardless of their contiguous neighbour.' Among the tortoiseshelts are an occasional "-painted lady "- and red Admiral, but these—in my garden —are the only other butterflies that join the flock. If the day. is hot and sunny they all -move to a south looking wall towards the end -of the -day to enjoy the heat of the bricks. The most notable absentee has been the peacock, which one has come to regard as a companion of the red admiral. Not 'a single specimen has been seen in some Midland places, though contrariwise it' has made a new and surprising appearance in Scotland.
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Late Bioods A good many game birds and some others appear to have brOught off very late broods. The latest I know of.is reported to me from the east of Lincolnshire. As a field was being reaped a pheasant's nest was disclosed, and the remaining eggs put under a hen., Most of them .hatched with small delay, and a day or two later two very, young chicks were foUnct near by the Place by the same shrewd eye that had saved the first clutCh. It would seem that the pheasant had foUnd two of her egga;that had escaped the eye when the reaper- -disclosed the nest. The chicks were notmore.than.a day old, bid were not fn a nest. They were retrieved pie:with the other chicks under the hen. Apart from tg. littleinystery, the lateness of the hatch is remarkable.
W. BEACH. THOMAS.
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