COUNTRY LIFE
_ IT will be a pity if some real use is not made of the almost un- precedented crop of nuts and, in rather less degree, of walnuts. Bushes of Kentish cobs and filberts are even more heavily laden than the hazels in the hedges. The only people who appreciate nuts as a real contribution to the food supply arc one or two vege- tarian organisations, the rooks, which clear most walnut trees, and the small boys who pull the nut trees to pieces, after the manner of the poet Wordsworth in his salad days. dne of the best of breakfast foods is made chiefly of nuts, which thus treated are a rival even of the oat. There is a Spanish proverb to the effect that God gives nuts to those who have lost their teeth.
Strange Birds A controversy has been raging for a year or more among bird watchers on the question whether peregrine falcons frequent Salis- bury spire, as other big hawks the spire of Cologne cathedral. A stranger event, which is above dispute, has been recorded in Ply- mouth. After the worst air-raid that rather rare and most beautiful hawk, the Merlin (whose nest I once saw near Braunton Burrows) began to appear in the town ; and there seems reason to believe that he found broken buildings very much to his taste, just as the wild duck, which took immediate advantage of the pools of water constructed in the ruins of London buildings. In the midst of war, observers of birds and their societies maintain their activities and manage to publish their records. No better example can be given than the Devon Bird-watching and Preservation Society, whose yearly report is compact of news that would interest all ornithologists. What a Iist of surprising appearances it contains! They include a flamingo, a cream-coloured courser, a Dusky thrush, a hoopoe, a sea-eagle, a crane, a great grey shrike and other rarities. There is much evidence that the chiff-chaff stays in Devon through- out the winter. This very interesting report may be had from the Hon. Secretary, Stockland Vicarage, Honiton.
The Best Bees Every beekeeper is aware that there are bees and bees. It may interest psychologists to know that, in my neighbourhood at leas the Italian bees, though good workers, are by very much worse tempered than the good, kindly English bees! But the belief grows that the best of all bees are the Caucasian, partly on the ground that they are the most thorough. They are being exclusively cul tivated in one research apiary (as previously reported), and one beekeeper, from Birmingham, tells me that he knows no other bees " which fill up comb honey to the edges as they do." This beekeeper is endeavouring in vain to get a licence to import Cauc]• sian queens (what a romantic sound the phrase has!) from ar.
Alabama bee farm. .
In the Garden One of the most useful of all vegetables is the spring cabbage and this year seems to have settled the controversy as to the data of sowing. Those sown in July bolted ; those sown in August flourished superbly. Sow now. Plant out in late September or early October. In regard to out-of-door tomatoes it is important not to give them stimulating manures till the fruit begins to form Otherwise growth may be encouraged at the cost of fruit. Is an. plant in the flower garden more attractive at this season than th graceful, fine-flowered Aetna Broom? W. BEACH 'Mows.
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