COUNTRY LIFE
A Sea-born Harvest
A little and delicious harvest provided by aid of the " un- harvested sea " has this October reached to a pitch of profusion that its most eager devourers have never seen equalled. The crop is so large and good that gatherers assemble from towns fifteen miles away. The harvest is that seductive seaweed of the ulva group called by the popular name of laver. One doctor of particular wisdom has been heard to say that if only the populace would eat laver, maladies would completely vanish, and the supporters of his fond and doubtless conscious exaggeration are numerous among the elder inhabitants. It is averred that nowadays only the elder people eat it and collect it, but it maintains its market price and the demand is greater than the supply, at least in most years. The herring is said to be the most wholesome of fish and the best supplier of certain necessary vitamins (whatever they may be) because it devours the imperceptible green grass of the sea. Those who eat laver short-circuit the herring. They consume a green seaweed direct. The few occasions on which I have personally partaken of this ambrosia, it has seemed to me an agreeable but not exciting food. The chief pleasure conveyed by the repast was the confident hope that it was repelling every and any malady.
Purple Patch This rather curious alga, which must be covered by the tide at its regular intervals, suffers a sea-change very apparent in its complexion. It may be said to die in the purple. It matures.from a sort of greenness in spring to a sort of dull red- blue in October when it is fit for gathering. Quite how widely spread the plant is I do not know. It is described as local, and the one locality where I }mow it to be plentiful is on the flat rocks of certain bays where North Devon turns from a westerly to a northern aspect. Here it is eagerly gathered, and thereafter washed an inordinate number of times, minced finely, and at the end cooked in salt water. Such a food, such a medicine, such an ideal combination of vitamins and iodine is doubtless ridiculously cheap at Is. a lb.
* * * * Neglected Foods The edible and commercial seaweeds have suffered, I think, a considerable setback in this century. The Victorians delighted to set their blancmanges with the gelatinous seaweed, doubtless very good for the human economy, known in the market as Iceland Moss. Are any bonfires still lit on the west coast of Ireland for the extraction of iodine from the magnificent stout-stemmed, .broad-banded seaweed that flourishes especially on our western seaboards ? Most seaweeds are singularly good manures, assisting the general good health as well as the temporary fertility of the land. They are, of course, still used, but not, I think, so widely as they might be. As a source of human food perhaps the most popular of all used to be especially associated with Scotland ; but even dulse is a seaweed that is allowed to waste its sweetness and other desirable qualities.
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Farm Schools
By general confession the most successful of all the schemes of migration from one part of the Empire to another is that associated with the Fairbridge School. The children are " caught young " (as Dr. Johnson advised), and a great many are found in the larger urban slums. The town child, especially perhaps in London, is sharp and quick ; but not in general merry. In looking through the annual account of the Fair- bridge Schools (which now number four and will be increased) nothing is so eloquent as the faces of the children. There is a town look, and a country look ; and the farm children have the country look as well as the stouter frames. My spaniel dog and I once met two London children enjoying a country holiday. One small boy said to the other, pointing to the dog : " That's a Spanish dog ; you can tell it by its face." You can tell these children by their faces. It seemed to me, when once I travelled the Empire, that the happiest of all the regions was Western Australia, where the first Fairbridge School was planted. One part of it, at any rate, has all the virtues. Water, a fertile soil, trees, a very equal climate, beauty of landscape, harbours and no overcrowded towns. It is a sad comment on the ideals of humanity that all these failed to attract settlers till gold was discovered in the more arid district. Happily Kingsley Fairbridge had a truer eye, a better ideal. No Empire scheme is better worthy of support.
A Naturalists' Calendar A very large number of readers of The Spectator last year enjoyed an international naturalists' calendar that seemed to me the best thing in the photography of birds, mammals, insects and flowers that I had ever seen. It was a first venture undertaken on behalf of international preservation of birds. It succeeded so well that another calendar of similar sort, but with very novel pictures, has been issued for 1939. The fifty-two photographs (with the admirable little legends attached) are an unbroken succession of triumphs not only in the art of photography but in the work of the sleuth. Many rarer and shyer creatures and some nocturnal creatures have been caught in characteristic poses. The hedgehog with her train of young is one example. The calendar (published by Forrester, from 9 Leinster Gardens, W.2, at 3s. 6d.), has a real purpose. The idea behind the calendar is the linking together of naturalists of different countries. The interest in nature is such a strong bond of sympathy that through it, and ornithology in particular, the people of different nations can come to a better under- standing of each other. At the International Committee for Bird Preservation Italians, Germans, French, Czechs, Hungarians—in fact almost all nations in Europe—are working amicably together for one common aim. It was equally striking at the recent International Ornithological Congress in Rouen last May when the Secretary was a Frenchman, the President an Italian, and 300 ornithologists from countries all over the world met together in the greatest friendship.
Picture Lessons I received the other day a request from a county councillor to send any goad magazine pictures I might have of farm stock. They were wanted for exhibiting on the walls of elementary schools. Nothing brightens the walls or the intelligence of a child better than good pictures of living things. Such a calendar as the above ought to be a godsend to such authorities as arc looking to this form of natural education.
* * * * In the Garden This unusual season has italicised the exceptional vitality of that rather unexpected plant, the sisyrinchiurn, which rill it flowers is sometimes mistaken for an iris. Within the last few days the apparently dead and withered flower-stalks have put forth leaves with minute flowers enclosed. Many people ban the plant because it seeds so freely ; but it has real virtues. It flowers for a long period and the leaves remain very fresh in appearance throughout the winter. If there is a rough place to be covered few plants do the job better. As for the self-sown seedlings they are very easily eradicated. Few plants have smaller roots. Some gardeners grow it along with irises, and the green leaves can be used agreeably to cloak the withering leaves of the Sibirica Iris. I expressed some regret the other day for the virtual disappearance from the staff of nurserymen of the botanists who searched remote places for rare plants ; and in connexion with this specifically lamented the extinction of the firm of Veitch which gave a name to some of the most precious of alien plants. The firm of James Veitch, which came to an end in 1914, was in my mind. The firm of Robert Veitch, for which " Exeter " has always been sufficient address, happily survived, thanks in no small measure to the energy and skill of Miss Veitch, the present director. She has sustained the firm as a household word in the West Country. Famous gardens which her ancestors helped to create she helps to maintain. It happens that " corroborative evidence " reaches me this week from one of the more famous of the Devon gardens.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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