WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 249 



much amused at a list of crimes presented to me by a young 

 officer who had lost his eye and won the M.C. in France. 

 I lent him my gun one day when he was at home on leave, 

 and after half an hour he returned with a pheasant, saying 

 with a smile of triumph, " I have broken the law in five 

 places. I have shot without a licence ; I have killed a 

 pheasant ; I have trespassed ; I have shot after sundown ; 

 and I have committed these crimes on a Sunday." 



Farm workers are quick to respond to the change in the 

 social conscience with regard to game. They are growing 

 bolder and more independent with their rise in status as 

 essential food producers, and the following anecdote will illus- 

 trate their greater assertion of manhood. A ploughman well 

 known to me was told by his mates that " Farmer John," 

 who looked with an evil eye upon the ploughman's black 

 dog, had said in the taproom of the King's Head that there 

 was no chance of getting a hare whilst somebody's black dog 

 was about. Thereupon the ploughman walked into the 

 King's Head and intentionally not noticing the farmer, who 

 was sipping his whisky, said in a loud voice : "I say, you 

 chaps, what do you think I saw to-night ? such a strange 

 thing. I saw a hare running up the road with a card round 

 his neck, and on this card was wrote : ' / come from Farmer 

 John's wood.' ' 



Fuel was getting increasingly dear, even in woodland 

 districts. The cottager had to pay 26s. for his cord wood 

 instead of i8s. ; 265. for spray faggots instead of 125. ; yet 

 he saw great logs being continually drawn out of the woods 

 to warm the landowner's spacious hearth. 



Munition factories and aerodromes had invaded the 

 most remote country districts by 1917, and farm workers 

 regarded with curious eyes the spectacle of men and women 

 earning large wages to make things to destroy life, while 

 they, who produced the food to sustain life, remained the 

 worst paid workers of the whole community. They heeded, 

 too, that their fellow workers in these industries were able 

 to keep almost abreast with rising prices by means of trade 

 unions. Thus it came- about in places where trade unionism 

 had never before taken root the feeling arose that it was only 



