THE WHEAT-FIELD 201 



Not merely two hundred thousand grains, but 

 over three million grains to the acre have been 

 sown to get this laughing crop of blue-necked, 

 yellowing wheat. The old estimate of ' one for 

 the crow and two for the hoe' is always very 

 much exceeded when wheat is being planted, 

 and when we think of the thousand accidents of 

 wire-worm, damp, drought, frost, wind, mouse, 

 mole, slug, rabbit, and the others, it is a marvel 

 that on so slight an expenditure of seed so uniform 

 and opulent a crop can be raised. 



With a whirr of thunder, a thousand -winged 

 horde of sparrows and finches flies up from a 

 corner of the field to perch and roll along the 

 hedge like a brown cloud. They attack the 

 wheat in the majesty of its fruition, and even 

 the bushels that they will take between now and 

 the harvest can in a measure be spared. The 

 partridges run along through the forest of corn, 

 and grow fat on the grains that the sparrows drop. 

 When the stooks are up, wood-pigeons will come 

 from the wood and fill their ravenous crops many 

 times a day. Voles and rats will lay them up 

 stores for the winter, showers and streams of 

 grain will be lost on the way to the threshing- 

 machine, and yet there will be left a mountain of 

 bread for the feeding of those who have no idea 

 of the perils that attended its growth. 



Any Cockney knows and appreciates the meaning 

 of these palpable robbers, the birds and the rats, 

 and even the repulsive rust and smut that reduces 



