FIELDFARES 



THE STRUGGLE WITH COLD 

 (i) BY LAND 



IT is a pretty belief of the country people, and it is general, 

 that many berries mean a hard winter. Such a thing is not 

 impossible. It could be that weather of the sort to produce 

 much fruit is a cause of other weather that includes frost ; 

 but there is no evidence for the truth of the belief. One 

 year of astounding berry weather in this century was 

 followed by a winter of quite unusual mildness. As often 

 with country people, inherent teleology has been stronger 

 than observation. The truth is that in England the harvest 

 of berries is always large ; and often lasts on until every 

 fear is gone of the dearth that goes with heavy frost. 

 But however open the winter, the favourite berries are 

 always cleared off, and generally there comes a day when 

 hunger or laziness compels an attack on the more bitter fruit. 

 Every winter within the writer's experience a certain clump 

 of holly bushes has been attacked and cleared of berries by 

 a sudden onslaught in January. Several trees of the clump 

 are female hollies, and thanks to their juxtaposition to the 

 males they usually bear heavily. The groups of coral 

 berries stand out very clearly from the metallic leaves, so 

 clearly indeed that emissaries from Covent Garden, who now 

 range the country at a radius of a hundred miles from 



319 



