WASTED HARVESTS.
In no other European country are quite so many products of potential value neglected as in England. It is recorded by a specialist—Mr. Bristowe Noble—that " for many years quite three-quarters of the English rush crop has been going to waste, not because, as it now appears, there has been no demand for it, but because country people have been too slothful and indolent to harvest and market it," though thousands of pounds are spent on Continental imports. The demand for reeds is much greater than the supply, owing to the popularity of Norfolk thatch ; and one of the crops that always pays is the willow. There is real neglect of such crops. One may be justified in their regard in recalling the lament of an ardent conchologist pained by the spectacle of " great big snails, crawling about unmolested and uneaten " I But the snails do not run to a loss of thousands of pounds.
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