66 The Amateur Poacher 



before the snow sounds overhead. On the slender 

 branches grow green ovals, from whose tips tiny scarlet 

 plumes rise and curl over. 



It often happens that while the tall rods with 

 speckled bark grow vigorously the stole is hollow and 

 decaying when the hardy fern flourishes around it. 

 Before the summer ricks are all carted the nuts are 

 full of sweet milky matter, and the shell begins to 

 harden. A hazel bough with a good crook is then 

 sought by the men that are thinking of the wheat 

 harvest : they trim it for a ' vagging ' stick, with which 

 to pull the straw towards them. True reaping is now 

 never seen : * vagging ' makes the short stubble that 

 forces the partridges into the turnips. Maple boughs, 

 whose bark is so strongly ribbed, are also good for 

 * vagging ' sticks. 



Nut-tree is used for bonds to tie up faggots, and 

 split for the shepherds' hurdles In winter sometimes 

 a store of nuts and acorns may be seen fallen in a 

 stream down the side of a bank, scratched out from a 

 mouse's hole, as they say, by Reynard, who devours 

 the little provident creature without regard for its wis- 

 dom. So that man and wild animals derive pleasure 

 or use from the hazel in many ways. When the 

 nuts are ripe the carters' lads do not care to ride 

 sideways on the broad backs of the horses as they 



