COUNTRY LIFE Is the best harvest (potentially) of modern times
salved or saved ? I think we may say "saved." I have never seen a more general endeavour to secure a good result. Extra hours of work have not only been asked of labourers. They have been urged by the workmen ; and long hours on both Saturday and Sunday have been the order of the day. English people have been accused of an inordinate interest in the weather as a subject of conversation ; but there could be no better sign of the com- munity of feeling in rural districts than the universal interest in the weather throughout the villages this August. Thought for the harvest was all in all. If a like spirit were tâ be found in other industries we should be a happy and prosperous people indeed. As a footnote to harvest activities the ethics of gleaning are worth some discussion and have caused some jealousies. It has generally been understood for centuries that gleaning is allowed when and only when the shocks are cleared and the raking completed ; but in most fields, owing to complete supersession of the man with the scythe, a.line of flattened and not half- cut grain has been left alongside the hedges. Those who were first to profit by this gold-mine could gather in a day enough corn to feed their poultry for a good part of the year ; and the temptation to anticipate the clearing of the sheaves proved in many cases irresistible. In old days such gleanings would have been sent to the local mill, and cottagers would have enjoyed their own "gleaning loaves!' Today, the mills are no more ; and fodder is hardly less eagerly sought than food. -
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