The Country Gentleman's Magazine 



2X1 



THE FRIENDS AND FOES OF THE FARMER. 



AT the last meeting of the FramHngton 

 Farmers' Club, the Rev. E. A. Bloom- 

 field, of Guestling, delivered a lecture upon 

 "The Friends and Foes of the Farm and 

 Garden." Rats and mice he considered as 

 unmitigated evils ; and moles, where there 

 were drains, were certainly injurious. Re- 

 ferring to birds and insects, Mr Bloomfield 

 proceeded as follows : — Let us now turn to 

 the birds, and here we find many friends of 

 the farmer, although he too often looks upon 

 them as foes. Kestrel, or windhover. — I 

 should wish to say a word in favour of this 

 pretty hawk. Its food consists almost en- 

 tirely of mice and insects ; and while it thus 

 does great good to the farmer, I believe it 

 does no harm to game, and ought to be en- 

 couraged by game-preservers as well as farmers. 

 The fact is, it is often confounded with the 

 sparrow-hawk, and thus suffers for the sparrow- 

 hawk's misdeeds. Barn owls are still greater 

 friends of the farmers, destroying numbers of 

 mice and insect foes ; and as they are out at 

 night only, need not be suspected of injuring 

 game. I believe that the good the rooks do 

 to the farmer is incalculably greater than the 

 injury. The truth is, we can easily see the 

 harm they do, while we cannot see the thou- 

 sands of subterranean grubs which they 

 devour. For instance, you will see a 

 flock of rooks pulling up the grass in 

 a pasture. What are they doing? They 

 are devouring the destructive grubs which 

 live at the roots of the grass. Although the 

 rook may do harm to the corn when first 

 sown and when ripe, it far more than repays 

 by destroying the insect enemies throughout 

 the year. Besides, it is easy to keep the rook 

 off the crops for a few months, and have the 

 benefit of its services at other times. The 

 starling is also most useful in destroying in- 

 sects, especially the grubs, which live at the 

 roots of the grass. They have, I know, 

 been accused of sucking pigeons' eggs ; but 1 



believe the charge to be groundless. There 

 are three kinds of pigeons which occur with 

 us, the ring dove, the stock dove, and the 

 turtle dove. The turtle dove is only with 

 us in the summer, and does litde or no 

 damage. I cannot say the same for the 

 other two. In this neighbourhood, I believe 

 almost everyone knows the difference between 

 them, but in many parts of England the dif- 

 ferences do not seem to be recognised. The 

 ring dove is much larger and of lighter 

 colour, and builds a rude nest in branches. 

 The stock dove is more like our common 

 blue rock domestic pigeon, and generally 

 builds in hollow trees. I am afraid I cannot 

 say a good word for the ring doves, as they 

 are very destructive, especially to peas and 

 young clovers, while they do very little good 

 in return. They are almost exclusively vege- 

 table feeders, and do not destroy wire-worms 

 and grubs, as the rooks do. I know that 

 sparrows are detested by the farmer ; but I 

 believe they are not an unmitigated evil. 

 They destroy many grubs, which would in- 

 crease amazingly if they were allowed to go 

 unchecked. I cannot leave the birds with- 

 out saying one word in favour of the wood- 

 pecker. It does neither harm nor good to 

 the farmer, but I believe is often considered 

 as an enemy by timber growers. I believe it 

 is, on the contrary, a good friend to them. 

 It destroys many of the insects which injure 

 trees, and never, I believe, bores into sound 

 trees — in fact, a woodpecker's hole is a sign 

 that the trees ought to come down. 



As to our insect friends and foes, the cock- 

 chafer is very destructive to the leaves of 

 shrubs and trees ; but the damage it does is 

 of little consequence compared with that 

 done by the larva or grub, which lives at the 

 root of the plant. "Many a fair pasture 

 land," we are told, " is withered, and many a 

 broad field of corn assumes a sickly ap- 

 pearance" through these destructive creatures. 



