2 FEBRUARY 1934, Page 17

Dykes and Pheasanti In that attractive part of England which

we call in Cam- bridge and Huntingdon the Fens andin South the

marsh, there have never been hedges. t-heir place is taken

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by wide dykes. One of the very best farmers on the very richest hit of English soil decided some twelve years ago that his crops were suffering from various insect maladies encour- aged by the absence of birds due to the absence of hedges. He thereupon bought one setting of pheasants' eggs, and today his farms have so large a head of pheasants that you might almost take the tilths for farmyards. The farmer is quite convinced that wireworms and the tribe of deleterious .creepy-crawly creatures has been satisfactorily reduced. The birds do very well without woodland and nest like duck on the grassy banks of the ditches.