COUNTRY LIFE

A New Breed Britain is recognised over the greater part of the world as the breeding home of the best farm stock ; and its repute in this regard is nowhere so great as in South America. It was, therefore, a little surprising in that paradise of stock farming to hear of the growing popularity of a breed bearing a name unknown to us. The animals were often called Redpolls, simply ; but the word bore no reference to the Norfolk or Suffolk Redpoll, which has made fame in many countries, but not in Argentina, ks a dual-purpose breed; these redpolls were purc-bred Aberdeen Angus. The red _"sport" or throwback has been specially selected as a gem, not rejected as a freak, and some very comely herds have been slowly. amassed. It does not appear to have any

• advantages over the black Angus, that wins all the champion- ships at Smithfield, but for some reason the Argentine farmer likes uniformity of colour : he likes his shorthorns (which he almost always calls Durhams) red and he is fond of the Hereford. The three breeds hold an astonishing pre-eminence.

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Native Cattle

Here and there in a mixed lot of store cattle you see one of the so-called native cows. They have exactly one virtue, their coat is of a purple-fawn colour peculiarly pleasing to the eye ; but for the rest to regard one of these aboriginals is the best way to realise how immensely the stock have -been improved by immigration from England. The stock themselves seem to be—snobbishly—aware of this. I saw one big paddock in which were grazing pure-bred Herefords, kept for breeding purposes, and a number of stores ready for fattening. The Herefords would have nothing to do with the cross bred.s. They moved away when the others came near and the whole herd kept strictly apart. The farmer found this exclusiveness very useful, and assured me that it was a commonplace of social behaviour. Many of the cows in question were sired by a champion winner at the Royal Show who lived apart in the grateful shade of a grove of Pariso, perhaps the most useful of all trees in that district.

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"Sunflower Oil A certain number of crops that have an almost freakish appearance have been bringing a fair amount of money to South American farmers. The chief of these is the common or garden sunflower. On either side the straight, smooth and singularly efficient railway, the Central Argentine, I -saw acre after acre brilliant with the great flowers. From time to time both the sunflower and its cousin, the Jerusalem artichoke, have been urged upon our farmers as good stock- feeding and poultry-feeding crops ; but they have never been highly approved, except by a few isolated poultry keepers. The sunflowers are grown in South America solely for the oil, which is abundant. If you ask what they arc grown for, the usual, half but not wholly facetious answer is : " for making the best olive oil." Another oil-bearing crop, a direct rival to the sunflower, is the monkey-nut.

A Bumper Crop

Both these have ardent votaries ; but the crop of the country remains, of course, maize; and it will probably be . the biggest, perhaps much the biggest, in history. On account of early drought, much wheat could not be sown ; and its place was taken for the most part by maize. The season has favoured it ; and after traversing many hundred miles by rail and motor-car I began to ask myself how the world could possibly consume this immense weight of food. Some . of the roads (mostly made of mud and nothing else) were almost like forest paths. Every cob is picked by hand. The men walk with an immense sack which their legs straddle, and it sweeps behind like a court train while they clutch at the cobs on either side and deliver them into the mouth of the sack. And when the cobs are harvested there remains standing in the field a succulent and sugary plant excellent for the fattening of stock. How many ranches consist wholly of maize, alfalfa, grass and cattle ! and the formula is one of the most consistently remunerative in the art of farming, _ though, of course, the depression hit Argentina hardly less than Canada or New Zealand or Britain. I know exactly one English farmer who grows maize for the sale of " corn in the cob " as a vegetable ; and he puts the stems in earthern silos for his stock. The crop, on a small scale, has served him well. * * * *

February Justified

If ever February fulfilled its epithet, Fill-dyke, it is this year. I left England in early December, and even then, in spite of long rains, sonic wells and some watercress beds were dry. The recovery has been absolute. The watercress beds are a good signal of the seasons. Most of them are made in'river valleys, as along the Lea, but they are not, in many districts, fed by streams diverted from the river but from springs that well up in the river valley ; and these springs indicate the effects of drought well before it is seen in the stream itself. The water that feeds the cress is there- fore of the purest ; and it is a happy fact for those who keep commercial beds that it is the first of all leaves to brave the winter, as those whose fingers are concerned in the gathering of the harvest know well. The first watercress has no rival.

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The Silent Dog-Whistle Very many enquiries have reached me about the " soundless dog-whistle " referred to some months ago. The invention, I believe, was due to an old discovery (of Professor Calton's). The dog can hear higher notes than we can. A whistle has been manufactured and it can be set to notes virtually inaudible to the human ear. lkaz-s pay instant attention to it and dog trainers begin to use it and think highly of it. But there are provisos. Dogs vary a good deal in the heed they pay to it, and conditions, it seems, must be fairly quiet. The whistle also must be very carefully used. Any dampness spoils its efficiency. Time whistle can be obtained from the Country Gentleman's Association, Letchworth, Hefts, at a cost of 7s. 6d. post free. More or less scientific experiments are being made with it in the hearing of other animals. Some dog-experts say that the :mutest ears of any variety of dog arc to the account of the Airedale terrier ; and that for this reason it is the best companion for the policeman.

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A Canary's Tragedy A little incident from one of its native habitats may suggest to those who keep cage-birds that the canary has a natural affinity to the home of man. A pair were continually in and out of a verandah—and they were alone in the domesticity —of a farm house in Argentina. One day when the heat grew rather more severe than it had been, the long curtains that had hung in folds down the posts were drawn, and out of the fold of one of them fell to the ground the nest and eggs of the canaries. For a little while they went in and out of the place looking for the vanished nest, but never found it or never returned to it, when it was placed in the crook of a neighbour tree. An oddity of the little tragedy was that the small, neat nest contained also the egg of it small dove, very common in this country. The bird is not a cuckoo, but not infrequently indulges in this queer habit. The egg, though big for the canaries' nest, is absurdly small for the dove.

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Epping Verderers Next week are to be elected at Elizabeth's Lodge verderers for the northern and southern forests of Epping. The people of West Ham, East Ham, Wanstead and Leyton will vote at Nightingale Lane. Other spots to which electors for the " forest parishes "' are invited are Lopping House, Snakes Lane, Coppice Road, Woodford Green. Epping has, perhaps, nothing quite like Verderers Hall by Lyndhurst in the so- called New Forest, nor have the houses permitted Essex to retain the wild charm of Hampshire ; but the names, at least, survive to accent the continuity of English history ; and, more than this, you may still taste the very savour of a forest among the crooked hornbeams and open glades of Theydon Bois. May venterers and agisters maintain " in perpetuity," as the phrase is, what remains of these ancient customs ! Urban streets continue to trail clouds of glory from