IS THE COUNTRYSIDE BEING SPOILT?
This is an argument which has to be looked at from several points of view. First of all let us take the country lover, he looks upon these new electric cable standards as an enemy to the countryside, but we find it necessary to have these changes as civilization advances. The engineer looks upon them as a thing of beauty. The person who is only an onlooker thinks it a change and may also take either the country lover's or the engineer's side which ever he fancies. It may happen that in years to come these standards may be looked upon in the same way as telegraph posts are to-day.
F. VIDLER.
THE WILD CHERRY.
In Cambridgeshire there is a festival called Cherry Sunday when everyone visits the cherry orchards and on a payment of sixpence may eat as many cherries as he pleases.
For some unknown reason the cuckoo has always been associated with the cherry tree. An old proverb says, " The cuckoo never sings tilt he has thrice eaten his fill of cherries." Country children still play a delightful game in which he has a part. Joining hands, they dance round a cherry tree and sing :-
" Cuckoo, cuckoo, cherry tree,
Come down and tell to me
How many years I have to live."
Then each child shakes a branch of the tree and the number of years he has to live is shown by the number of cherries which fall. If five or twelve fall he has five or twelve more years to live, and so on.
Cherry trees are often visited by a cunning little bird called the woodpecker. He is seeking for insects which live upon the bark of the tree. If you listen you can often hear his bill, peck, peck, pecking, on the tree as he picks up his food
F. E. M. BETTS.
PAPER MAKING.
The first step in paper making is to obtain the material, which is wood, esparto grass, or rags. Rags make the best paper, but wood is chiefly used, being cheaper. The logs