I am interested to see that the Somerset County Council are to reclaim a great deal of land from luracken. It is calculated that 1,500,000, acres of good farming land in Britain jate covered with bracken, which sours the soil, checks the growth of young trees and in winter greatly increases the danger of fire. 1 know something of this pest, as, when we settled near London, our bit 2f ground was in places head high wish it, For the small owner the only course is to keep on hacking it down directly the young fronds appear and before they uncurl and convey oxygen to the roots. Ultimately it dies and can be dug up comparatively easily. Copious time is then needed to sweeten the soil, The Somerset Council, having the money, can burn the bracken down and plough it up. Lime and manure will be needed of course. To redeem land from bracken is always slow and expensive, yet well worth the trouble, Somerset might add thousands of quarters to our wheat, not to mention other foods, if it could oust this poisonous weed, Every visitor to London knows the old Admiralty building in Whitehall built by Robert Adam, with its pillared screen In front of the court yard topped by two prod: gious sea. horses. The Oflee of Works. whose care of such ancient monuments as can control is worthy of the highest praise, has just finished cleaning all the stonework, which had not been cleaned for 178 years. Fine jets of water were played upon the carvings which gradually reappeared from under their coat of dirt, Oddly enough, the London smoke and grime which has been so terribly corroding elsewhere had done them no harm.
The building looks beautiful now,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.