Our contempt for milk is expressed in some counties in
the appearance of the very fields. In scores of parishes in England to-day you will find grass fields entirely uncut or unfed ; and the spectacle is quite new to England. In some of these the tangle is so great that even bigger birds that settle in it have trouble to escape. Why is so much uncut ? I can answer my own question in regard to a certain num- ber of particular acres. The owner could not get anyone to cut his acres, even if he offered the grass for nothing. One big firm of agents tried in vain to find workers and machines. The only man who offered left the work undone. Stock-keeping pays moderately well. Hay is always a valuable possession for it improves with keeping; yet pastures that should be worth £4 an acre for grazing have become an incubus. Here and there they have been cleared by burning and a good many more are reserved for this treatment. The general understocking of the farms, due to want of capital or fear of spending it, is presumably at the root of the trouble. Such appearances are most melancholy in the eyes of " the happy countryman." Nevertheless, in spite of such gloomy details, in spite of the acres, lively only with weeds now releasing their seed broadcast, there is more than one sign of new energy on the land ; in several districts a slightly brisker demand for farms, a check in the surrender of tilth to grass, and a return of confidence witnessed by the purchase of stock.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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