Evening journal., 1898-12-29
THROUGH RURAL ENGLAND.
Fields That Are Crossed. by Footpathx
--Thorns TO Interfere with
Poachers' Work.


During harvest English agricultural
laborers are at work in the fields until
darkness comes. The last load is often
carried by moonlight For both farm
ers and lgborers the harvest time is
good time. For the laborers it means
any amount of overtime at overtime
prices, and from June to September
hundreds Of thousands of English la
borers nearly double their wages and
put together the savings which are 10
carry them and their families with
comfort through the winter, when the
working days are short and wages not
as high as when farm labor is in great
demand.
Journeying through rural England
just when the crops are being carried
one cannot fail to notice two features
about English fields that are missing in
American fields. One of these is the
extent to which English fields are cut
up by public footpaths. The other is
the studding Of the fields which have
been cleared of hay with stiff thorn
bushes cut from the hedges. The foot
paths date back to centuries when
farming land was not so valuable nor
so closely cultivated as il is to-day.
Farmers do not like these footpaths.
Nor do landlords like them either. For
a field with a footpath across it COM
mands less rent than one that is com
pletely irclosed. But in England once
footpath always a footpath. Even the
railways have to accept this usage as
clyone can see by the frequency Of
foot bridges across the lines in rural
England. AS regards the studding of
newly mown fields with stiff thorns.
that, too, for American readers has an
explanation which is not without in
terest 1t is done only in game coun-
tries and the object of the thorns set
up with great frequency in the fields
is TO prevent poachers from dragging
them at night with nets. Wherever
this studding of the fields with haw-
thorn stakes occurs it is proof that
game preserving is carried on in the
neighborhood, and that the game keep
ers expect trouble from their inveterate
enemies, the poachers.
As one nears the larger towns, espe-
cially the towns which are great rail-
way centers, iti is easy TO see how fond
the English town workmel of the mid
lands Is of bit of land, and how in the
twilight of the summer evening he
busies himself with his allotment. He
is usually at work in his allotment by
half-past six. After leaving work he
allows himself about an hour 10 get
home, take supper and smoke a pipe,
and then off he goes to his garden
/ patch. Oftentimes his wife and children
go with him, and there they stay, all
more or less at work, until darkness
drives them home. The work Is not
especially hard It is done in leisure
ly way, varied with a little gossip with
the proprietors of neighboring patches;
and where a field Of IS or 20 acres is d.
vided into these garden lots the scene
on a summer evening is about as pleas
ing as any scene which presents itself
in journey through the Midlands.
II is curious that these garden patch
scenes are more common in the mid
lands than in the north of England.
They are seldom seen on the outskirts
of the wooden and cotton factory towns
of Yorkshire and Lancashire. They In
variably occur. however, in the neigh
borhood Of a railway center in the mid
lands, where a great rai~ay company
has established its locomotive works or
its car factories. / think this is due to
the fact that railway artisans and
worl1men are recruited mostly in the
rural districts and transplanted, as il
were, to the towns, while the factory
operatives of Yorkshire and Lancashire
! are townbred men, with no stroug at
tachment TO the land. The English So
cialists sometimes condemn the allot-
, meHt system. They argue that If a man
adds to his earnings by working in an
allotment in his spare time his employ
er will note his added prosperity and
soon offer him less wages. But what
ever there may be in this socialistic ar.
(, gument, the allotment system thrives
in the outskirts of the large towns in
= e,midands, and it certainly adds to
the picturesqueness and charm of a
/, twilight journey across England.-N
III y