No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 675 



soil than when it is comparatively dry. Clover seed wants to be 

 covered as little as possible. Then we want the soil moisture right 

 at the surface to germinate it, then we want our dry covering to 

 become thick enough to preserve the moisture. This can all be ac- 

 complished by pulverizing the furrow as deep as possible, then pack- 

 ing it and allowing it to become thoroughly settled, then loosen up 

 2 or 3 inches of it, then wait until it rains on it and just as soon as 

 drv enough loosen not more than one inch with weeder or other 

 light tool, and immediately sow your seed and cover it shallow, as 

 the moisture recedes. The ground on top will dry out and become 

 mulch until the point is reached where it was loosened the first time 

 and there it will stop, and this process will progress just about as 

 fast as a young alfalfa root will extend itself down through the 

 soil. Then in order that the bacteria may live and work it is neces- 

 sary that the soil contains decayed and decaying vegetable matter, 

 and in getting it there we want to do so without letting it get up too 

 much heat in the soil and becoming sour, for if it does we will have 

 to use lime to neutralize the acid, the plant is not going to take nitro- 

 gen from the air until it gets the bacteria, and it is not going to get 

 the bacteria until it gets the root. So until it is able to get it from 

 the air it will have to get it from the soil. 



BIRD STUDY IN WINTER 



By FLORENCE K. KENDERDINE, LumberviUe, Pa. 



Would you forget the ills of life, the general mental and physical 

 dyspei)sia with which you suffer, the notes that are coming due, the 

 mortgage on the farm, the sameness of farmer's institute papers? 

 Would you forget all these, then study nature, study birds. There is 

 some comfort in watching even a crow when he is not stealing, just 

 because he does not have taxes, nor politics, nor indigestion, nor un- 

 sympathising relatives to worry him, like most Americans have. If 

 you love nature, there is a beauty in every landscape which you 

 will see, an interest in every bird, and tree, and flower, which you 

 will feel. Our likes and dislikes are not all born with us; some of 

 them are acquired, as for instance, a taste for olives. Some persons 

 would find a liking for birds far more easy to cultivate than a liking 

 for olives. For myself, I like birds and olives too. I shall assume 

 that you like birds, also, and if you will bear with me a little while, 

 I will tell you some things I have observed about our hardy winter 

 neighbors. I may tell you nothing but what you already know, for 

 I know very little, and the field is wide, but if I only recite incidents 

 you haA'e noticed, it may brighten your memory, and induce you to 

 continue your study, and that is all that I would ask. 



Most of our birds deserve our friendship. All hawks are not the 

 enemies of the poultry raiser. The Marsh Hawk and Red-shouldered 

 Hawk subsist chiefly on field mice and frogs, and according to Dr. 



