COUNTRY LIFE
Disappointing Rabbits
A small girl from London who is settling down agreeably in her new surroundings has had one grievous disappointment. She thought the country was a place where you saw lois of rabbits. I am not sure that she didn't expect them to come and feed out of her hand. The country people, on the other hand, are inclined to feel that there are too many rabbits. If they were systematically hunted, to the great advantage of garden and green crops, there would be a good meal for every family in the village once a week at least throughout the winter. Fuel is wasted even more generally than food. Properly exploited there is enough waste wood round about many villages to reduce the coal bill by 20 per cent. or more: most landowners would willingly give the wood if apparatus for cutting it up and distributing it were available. It would not need any very elaborate organisation to provide such facilities. War is a season when the value of what is usually wasted becomes apparent. Quite considerable fortunes were made in the last war by village rag-and-bone merchants_
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