Country Life
By IAN NIALL
ALL sorts of things point the progress of agriculture —a plea for care in the use of harmful sprays in the interest of bees that fertilise fruit buds; one horse in a parade on Barley Saturday where traditionally thirty fine Shires clumped past; a cloud of dust behind a harrow indicating our helplessness in com- bating drought, which in the north will be officially recognised perhaps by the time these words appear. We have no place for great Shire horses, but might need cobs on forestry schemes. The sprays we use to kill one harmful insect may put paid to a useful one. Some birds are deprived of cover by weed de- struction, but, on the other hand, we know how to make hens lay round the clock. Time doesn't stand still and the dog must have his day, which is borne out by the fact that more than a thousand casualties were inflicted by sheep-worrying dogs in Wales last year. We record an earlier spring and fruit trees un- harmed as yet by frost, while significant activity about the beehive indicates that in spite of sprays and toxic substances the coming month will see the largest colony breaking apart at the seams. It lacks only a Cobbett to make a picture of rural England from such material.
Previous page
