THE WHEAT-FIELD 199 



SEPTEMBER 



THE WHEAT-FIELD 



' Yellow with bird's-foot trefoil are the grass glades ; 



Yellow with cinquefoil of the dew-grey leaf; 

 Yellow with stone-crop ; the moss-mounds are yellow ; 

 Blue-necked, the wheat sways yellowing to the sheaf.' 



THUS sang Meredith in the ' yellow verse ' of 

 his Love in the Valley. The wheat plant 

 has for some time contained all the good things 

 that will soon be reaped in the grain. It has been 

 pouring them, as all plants do, into the precious 

 seed, the sole hope of the plant when this year's 

 work is done. The last to go in will be the 

 finishing touch of cereal excellence now accumu- 

 lated in the blue neck of the stalk. Even if the 

 wheat should be cut now, the process would 

 go on, the grain would ripen in the stooks, and 

 the farmer would save more of it than he will if 

 he leaves the crop till it is dead ripe, as neverthe- 

 less most farmers do. 



The wheat is now nearly a year old on its roots, 

 for the British farmer finds little profit in spring 



