Harvest England is loveliest on the eve of harvest ;
and was it ever lovelier than this year, thanks both to the season and the war? Harvest began in the third week of July ; and is different in some regards from any harvest in our farming annals. On the newly ploughed grass lands much seed was sown broadcast owing to the difficulty of using the drills, those singularly perfect machines which sow grain at just so many bushel to the acre in lines as straight as ruled foolscap. Some of the sowers, little used to this antique method, sowed a quite portentous amount of seed, and it has come up as close as a hayfield with straws about as thick as a grass stalk. Breadths of it are " laid " ; are more horizontal than vertical. They are being reaped with difficulty but should nevertheless give heavy yields. Incidentally I heard a young woman (not a land girl) express some astonishment at the use of the word " broadcast " in regard to corn. She thought it was a rather extravagant metaphor from the B.B.C.!
Previous page
