1 86 THE WEST MIDLANDS 



in England because it can never support the proportion 

 of men to acres which ought to prevail in our densely 

 populated island, But better a forest than a desert, 

 better an organized attempt to earn three per cent, sixty 

 years hence than the deterioration which the unchecked 

 rabbit brings, even if he will earn a shilling or two per 

 acre for " sport." The rabbit is reported to have 

 destroyed much good land in Australia, but we doubt 

 if he does not levy a greater if less obvious toll on 

 England. Even where there is no question of a 

 warren it is wonderful what damage a farmer will 

 tolerate for the sake of the little shooting to which he 

 is entitled. 



On the New Red Sandstone the land was still very 

 largely in grass, poor thin pastures, burnt that year to 

 an extent we had seen in no other part, not even on 

 the thinnest soils of the chalk or the stiffest Weald 

 clays. The drought, indeed, lay heavy on the land ; 

 even the fields were absolutely brown and bare, in the 

 hedgerows the leaves all hung limp and were beginning 

 to discolour and drop, while some trees were evidently 

 dying outright. As we neared Droitwich both land 

 and farming improved, and from there to the Severn 

 we crossed a belt of red sandstone land which runs up 

 from near Worcester to Kidderminster and carries a 

 thriving agricultural population. This side of Wor- 

 cestershire is just as vigorously farmed as the Evesham 

 country, and again very largely by small holders ; but 

 the chief crops are potatoes and vegetables rather than 

 fruit, though considerable plantations have been put 

 down of recent years. The soil is very suitable for 

 growing potatoes of good quality, and the red land has 

 the great advantage of yielding tubers which look 

 bright and clean the moment they are dug up. Great 

 virtues are sometimes ascribed to 'the iron which so 



