COUNTRY LIFE
THE old water-mill—it is mentioned in Domesday—now grinds for its neighbours the rations of balancer meal for which our poultry clamours and on which it lays a satisfactory quantum of eggs. The water which for years flowed only down the crooked by-pass under the road now revolves the creaky wheel as it had done for nearly a thousand years. The miller, like most other people, has no means of transport, so other local tradesmen lend their aid and the meal is distributed through their kind co-operation. Those busy and occasionally wise persons who are planning England for the age that succeeds the war will deserve our gratitude if they take steps to keep the mills—wind- as well as water- mills—going. They are the best type and symbol of the local self- sufficiency which in the opinion of most countrymen is the supreme need of this England. Contrariwise the huge white-flour mills on the Western coast are symbols of the mad reliance on overseas (and devitalised) food which industrialists encouraged both from their workshops and from Parliament.
Neglect of Peat Fuel The neglect of a local form of self-sufficiency which is greatly deplored by a scientific Scotchman of my acquaintance is connected with fuel. Round about his first house in Scotland, where he still keeps a pied-A-terre, stretch extensive areas of excellent peat. Except for his own exploita- tion this extensive mine is wholly neglected, though the cost and difficulty involved in the supply of coal from deep and distant pits is great. He might notice a similar waste of fuel round about his house in a Home County. When the Government cut down local groves every perambulator in the parish was mobilised for the carrying away of chips and the smaller bits of " lop and top "; but there still lie there masses of more solid wood regarded apparently as useless. There is enough felled and fallen wood on a few acres to keep the population warm for a succession of winters, if the wood could be cut up, as it might be cut up, easily and cheaply by co-operative effort. Local power, fuel, fodder and food are all suicidally neglected, though the war itself has set afoot a certain reform.
Experiment of Bluebell Flowers
A few years ago an experiment was started at Kew with the object of seeing whether the more reckless and common method of picking off bluebell flowers down to the bleached part of the stalk weakened the plant. Now early plucking of the flowers of bulbs certainly tends to strengthen the plant, and no evidence has been produced to show that the bluebell can be weakened by any other method than by cutting off the leaves. The bulbs are often astonishingly deep ; and wherever the plant establishes itself there it multiplies. It is more glorious year after year in Kew Gardens, and though we generally associate it with woods it is multiplying on one at any rate of the treeless and half-barren islands off the coast of South Wales.
A Brave Bird
Across the lawn scuttled a grey squirrel which looked frightened as well as irritated. Behind it flew a starling which kept pecking at the squirrel's tail with obvious hostile fury. Doubtless the squirrel, with or without evil intent, had strayed too near the nest. Parent birds are, of course, endowed with reckless bravery. In the garden of a neigh- bouring house a blackbird was seen routing a cat. The bird actually perched on the back of the fleeing cat, which was quite cowed by the onslaught. Parent partridges have been seen fighting with a crow till they lost a good proportion of their feathers. I have known of a cock turkey that successfully defended its mate and young family from a fox. The just cause wins on such occasions, in spite of odds. When two birds of like species fight, the one that defends its own territory always, or almost always, wins: thrice armed is he . . .
In My Garden One hates to see a favourite wrongly praised. I have more than once urged the claims of Kohl Rabi among the rather rarer vegetables. It was praised the other day—and in a technical paper—on the grounds that its leaves and root were valuable at successive dates. Now the leaves are sparse and not particularly good, and it does not possess an edible root. It matures more quickly than most and is superior in savour because the edible part is the stalk. Sweet Corn, recommended in the same artide, may still be sown and is well worth while both for the table and for poultry. A number of early sorts are on the market. W. BEACH THOMAS.
Postage on this issue : Inland and Overseas, Id.
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