THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 201 



One might see "intelligent farmers" sitting caressing cats, while the worms 

 were devouring their crops, and their faithful guardians were in pussy's maw. 

 I used to he so tried that I should have hecn resigned to the dispensation of 

 Providence if I had heard some morning that the cats were eating the men in- 

 stead of the birds. It would certainly bo a groat blessing to the country if they 

 would just take a taste off enough members of agricultural societies to wake 

 them up so that they could see the havoc these cruel, treacherous beasts of prey, 

 these unnatural, monstrous companions of our children, have been making with 

 our forest songsters and prairie fowls. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



There are many charges perferred against the imported house sparrow that 

 we know he is not guilty of in his native Island, nor do we believe the following 

 is true of him. The Turf, Field and Farm, in answer to a correspondent, says : 

 "They will drive out every feathered songster you have, even to the robins; 

 not even quails can withstand them." In England they have a score of differ- 

 ent kinds of small birds, two-thirds of them being smaller than the sparrows, 

 and more than half are real songsters, yet we never heard of them being driven 

 away by the "pugnacious sj>arrow." He is a domestic bird, seldom staying 

 more than half a mile from a house, barn, or stack of some kind, but he is 

 quite at home in places where other birds are rarely if ever seen, hence, when 

 introduced into cities, we find him in the crowded streets, on the sidewalks, etc., 

 .and this may have led to the belief that he drives the other birds away. 



In the Centennial buildings, especially in Agricultural Hall, scores of spar- 

 rows were seeu flitting about from place to place, often alighting on the floor 

 within a few feet of the crowd, and as there were no other birds in the hall, the 

 natural, but unfair inference of a stranger would be "the sparrows have driven 

 them out;" but it is a question if no sparrows had been there whether any of 

 our feathered songsters would have ventured inside the building. 



The sparrow destroys the canker worm and other insects, but we never knew 

 him to destroy fruit. Our southern visitors may eat some insects. I have seen 

 one take a potato-bug on the wing, then alight and destroy ten cents worth of 

 early peas. As soon as fruit is ripe they go for that, and when it is gone they 

 leave us ; but the sparrow pays for the grain he eats in the summer by staying 

 with us all winter, and with his merry chattering and chirping as he flits about 

 our dwellings helps to break the monotony of the dreary winter months. 



E. Beadfield. 



TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS EARLY. 



In consequence of the teachings of a few writers on horticultural matters, 

 the idea has become quite prevalent that evergreens should not be transplanted 

 as early in spring as deciduous trees. I have frequently read carefully-prepared 



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