COUNTRY LIFE WAS there ever a year in which Shakespeare's
tribute to his favourit month was more graciously justified?
When proud-pied April dressed in all his trim Hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
The hedgerows are pied with flowers that on occasion do not open June. The may will be full out even in parts of the North Midland well before its name-month arrives. Some varieties of may open in the north of London on April t5th. The kexes are very tall an in full flower, cowslips and bluebells (which are well seen by th Queen's Cottage in Kew Gardens) are at their best ; and the on oxlip of my acquaintance is over and has set seed. Early in last wee I opened two hives that gave an almost startling example of th precocious " spirit of youth." The bees swarmed in the frames new cells had been run up promiscuously anywhere, and quite a fair amount of honey was already collected. It was necessary to put a new storey to the hives with all convenient speed. The proverbial philosopher did not envisage a swarm of bees before May ; bu swarming was a possibility at April's halfway house. The bees competed even for dandelion flowers, which indeed are outsized and resplendent. The bean flowers are open in mass enough to scent the air to a good distance ;, and is there any smell to surpass it? What will happen if heavy frosts ensue is best left unimagined ; but one defence is already perfected: the leaves are out in force enough to shield the vanished blossom of plum and pear.
Greedy Tits
An ardent gardener, especially in the matter of flowering shrubs, sends me a paean on the season, concluding with this lament: "the tits have denuded my apple trees buds and leaves. The top branches are practically bare and flower buds have gone from the whole of the trees. Very few are left." Bullfinches' raids on Forsythia blossom, sparrows' on cherry blossom, and unknown birds' on gooseberry buds are reported from other gardens. For myself I have seen no damage of this sort. It is apt to be worse in very dry weather, when many birds alter their habits. Rooks, for example, take to egg-stealing. It is certainly a wise, and kindly, precaution to set out plenty of drinking bowls. This is not as a rule a complete remedy, but it qualifies the rage for juicy buds. Since partridges have nested very early their nests will perhaps need more constant protection than usual. Rooks also have nested early, and the young may be out of the nest a fortnight earlier than usual. It is to be hoped that their slaughter will at least be moderated. That a certain number of rooks are of service to man is quite indisputable. A new sort of attack on birds comes from the eastern counties ; starlings are being shot and sold for food at a high price under anonymous descriptions. Starlings are not a pleasant food, even if they should be called ortolans.
Anonymous Scenes
Why do novelists, after taking infinite pains to describe places accurately, at the same time take equal pains to change all the names? I have just read a very charming little story about the cathedral-village-city of St. David's in Pembrokeshire, The Captain's Wife, by Eiluned Lewis, but both the city and the rocks or islands are given fictitious and irritating names. The whole district is worth a pilgrimage, not least from botanists and ornithologists, and the coast is on the way to become a national park. Since no one who had ever been there could doubt what place was meant there can be no protection in avoiding names. Or did the authoress not wish it to be generally known where the boy-hero found his chough's eggs? The last time I was there I .saw this rare but, I hope, less rare bird. Its chief enemy is not man, but the jackdaw, just as the worst enemy of both the oyster-catcher and the guillemot is the (black- headed gull.
In the Garden
With some pleasure I see that even the R.H.S. has given a certain moral support to the wisdom of not pruning. What is called " long pruning " of roses becomes an acknowledged art, though its wisdom is fiercely contended ; and long pruning means merely a cutting out of the superfluous and a slight topping here and there. In this wonderful year bedding roses topped after flowering have new shoots over a foot in length and flowers will soon be open on their tips. It seems to be a general belief among less learned gardeners that with the opening of the blossom the duty of spraying comes to an
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