Neglected Food and Clothing The marked increase in the population
of moles, to which earlier reference was made, is doubtless on the negative side the result of the new contempt for their skins. One old farm-hand (as reported from Gloucester) made quite a comfortable profit after the first great war by selling moleskins at £5 a hundred. Today he finds that there is no demand whatever. When we consider the general paucity of materials and the soft excellence of the moleskin, this is not a little surprising, as in the scarcity of food is the refusal to regard the grey squirrel as edible. At a time when caterers are selling thrushes, blackbirds and even owls for food, and giving fancy names to all manner of birds, we neglect some of the foods that were popular in days of plenty. Eels, once a standard form of food, at any rate in the Fens, arc wholly disregarded, as are many coarse fish. The gipsies would add hedgehogs to the list.
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