JOY IN HARVEST 261 



the motor the oat crops grow fewer, and wheat is taking 

 its place. 



Perhaps one day these other crops will displace wheat, 

 and harvest may mean a fruit or 

 a vegetable or a root harvest. The 

 straw is less precious than it was, 

 though it is far from being burnt 

 in England as it is on the great 

 American and Canadian prairies. 

 Rye straw is more valuable. In- 

 stead of straw there is growing 

 need for the fibre of the flax which 

 in Ireland, and here and there in 

 England, makes harvest almost as 

 lovely as if we reaped poppies. 

 That curious partial little mustard 

 harvest which makes patches of the 

 Cambridgeshire farms almost too 

 vivid to look at is spreading a little, 

 and alongside we may often see 

 the pink and white of buckwheat. 

 Stock grow more valuable and need 

 more green food, and the green 

 crops are in their degree splendid, 

 as you would expect from plants 

 with bright flowers. What could 

 be gayer than acres crimson with 

 alsike clover or pink with sainfoin 

 or mauve with other vetches, with 

 tares or alfalfa, the cut-and-come-again crop, which we call 

 lucerne. Of all the pleasant odours of summer none so over- 

 whelms us with sweetness as the breath of a beanfield which 

 carries further an even more delicate scent than the clover. 



*A HEAD OF OATS 



