254 



SUMMER 



tangled straw does not defeat the binders, he is not through 

 his troubles. One of the master qualities of the wheat is 

 i^ts readiness to grow; it germinates 'if you look at it/ as 

 a farmer used to say in the west country where rains are in 

 excess, and it will grow without waiting to be sown. On 

 occasion you may find much of it sprouting before it is 

 cut, and while the ear is erect enough to be well clear 

 of the ground. But it is in the stook that the mania 

 for germination chiefly appears. If the rains have been 

 lasting and the sunlight rare, a great part of a sheaf may 



** ~~ ....'- *' . 



SPROUTING STOCKS 



be so fastened together by the bonds of the growing 

 shoots that the ears are inseparable. Almost every grain 

 in every ear will have germinated and begun to grow 

 lustily, feeding on the starch stored in the grain. Some- 

 times, especially in the west, you may see across the stocks 

 a green film so vivid as to recall the verdure of a rice-field ; 

 and this home of tidily garnered wealth, neat as a room at 

 the mint, grows as desolate as the thatched roof of a 

 mouldering barn. 



Such an untidy mouldering appearance may fall even 

 on a standing crop if the season has been very wet 

 and mild. Now and again the clover that should bide its 



