268 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Naturalist,' after describing the sparrow, says — ' I have 

 called them plunderers, and they are such ; they are bene- 

 factors likewise, seeming to be appointed by nature as one of 

 the af;ents for keeping from an undue increase another race of 

 creatures, and by their prolificacy they accomplish this. In 

 spring and the early part of the summer, before the corn 

 becomes ripe, they live on insects, and their constantly increas- 

 ing families require au increasing supply of food. We see 

 them every minute of the day in continual progress, flying from 

 the nest for a supply, and returning on rapid wing with a grub, 

 caterpillar, or some reptile, and the numbers captured bj* them 

 in the course of their travels are incredible, keeping under the 

 increase of these races, and making ample restitution for their 

 plunderinga and thefts. When the insect races become scarce, 

 then the corn and seeds of various kinds are ready, their appe- 

 tite changes, and they feed on these with undiminished ei)Joy- 

 ment. As a proof that the produce of our corn-fields is not 

 the only food on which sparrows subsist, we may point to the 

 same tribe of birds in London, where thousands of them exiati 

 to whom corn must be little known. But a London sparrow 

 requires to be well cleaned before the true colour of his plumage 

 appears. If one of these begrimed soot-collectors be placed 

 near a bright trim sparrow from a bam door, it is difficult to 

 calculate that the rustic and citizen are birds of the same 

 feather. But it may be necessary to show that the evil to be 

 met is as great as has been represented ; that the ravages 

 of insects would, if unchecked by the birds, be of so serious 

 a nature. Let me observe then that the generation and 

 growth of swarms of insects is rapid, almost beyond credi- 

 bility. But we have proof of their prodigious increase. Take 

 the flesh-fly for instance. He is an indefatigable scavenger, 

 and it is well he is so. A small mass of decaying flesh sends 

 forth an intolerable stench, ar.d if all the animal matter 

 which it casts upon were left to accumulate, it would not 

 only affect our senses but our health also, were it not for 

 the millions of busy beings whose business it is to clear 

 the putrifyiug mass away. The flesh-fly covers its nutri- 

 ment with millions of eggs. These eggs turn to maggots in a 

 couple of days. They increase their weight 200 fold in 24 

 hours, and their voracity is such, that Professor Owen states 

 that there is no exaggeration in the assertion made by Linsus, 

 that three flesh-flies would devour the carcase of a horse as 

 speedily as a lion would. Then these flies serve another ofSce 

 in the economy of creation ; besides cleansing away putrid 

 matter, they serve for the food of numberless birds. They feed 



upon death ; and having sported their hour, find their end in 

 the stomach of the living bird. Mr. Rowell calculates that 

 but for this check flesh-flies would in six generations produce 

 flies suflkient to cover the whole earth to a considerable depth. 

 It is only lately that the habits of birds have been accurately 

 observed, for even the father of English natural history, Gil- 

 bert White, held mistaken notions about the small birds. In 

 his ' History of Selborne' he says, ' the willow wrens are 

 horrid pests in a garden, destroying the pears, cherries, cur- 

 rants, &c.' The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert says this sentence 

 of White's has been the cause of murder of these most inno- 

 cent little birds, which are in truth particularly the gardener's 

 friends. Many are under the impression that they make great 

 ravages among the cherries, yet I can assert that they never 

 taste the fruit. They peck the aphides, which are injurious to 

 the fruit trees. I have seen them pulling the leaves of the 

 cherry tree so near the fruit that any person might be deceived, 

 and think they were eating it, but they were actually pulling 

 the iuaects from the leaves. They feed on the lice, which seem 

 to have been intended by Providence as food for these little 

 soft-billed birds, the gold-crests, and many others. The ques- 

 tion for discussion does not call for a view of the subject on the 

 score of humanity.; nevertheless I would trespass one minute 

 longer to express my agreement with an anonymous writer of 

 the present day, that there is not one of the motives to cruelty 

 which operates so widely as unmixed wantonness without any 

 sort of object. Nothing is safe, provided it be small enough to 

 destroy, which approaches within reach of many people's hands 

 or feet. To see a living thing and desire to kill it, are with 

 them inseparable acts. Mr. Darwin tells us that on some of 

 the islands he landed on in the Pacific, the birds are so tame 

 they can be struck with a stick, and that the sailors, as they 

 wandered through the woods in search of tortoises, took a 

 wicked delight in knocking the poor confiding birds on the 

 head and leaving them to rot. ' Assuredly,' says the writer I 

 spoke of, ' Providence has done nothing without an object ; 

 aud is it to bs supposed He contrived creatures who, like our- 

 selves, are fearfully and wonderfully made, and breathed into 

 them the breath of life, merely that we might beat out their 

 brains by random blows as we pass along? Here is a won- 

 derful assemblage of animate nerves and blood-vessels, and di- 

 gestive organs, beyond even our power to comprehend, and 

 can it possibly be the end of their creation that we should 

 gaorantly crush them like a piece of dirt ?' " 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, AND THE PRIZE SYSTEM. 



The principal implement makers, a few years ago, formed 

 themselves into a company, called " the Association of Agri- 

 cultural Engineers." It is from this body, we believe, that all 

 the organised opposition to money prizes has emanated. The 

 great majority of the exhibitors of implements at the Royal 

 Agricultural Society's shows subscribed their names to a 

 memorial, which was addressed to the Council, praying for an 

 abandonment of annual trials, and also for the abolition of all 

 money prizes. The Council very wisely divided the imple- 

 ments iito three classes— [the division is now extended to 

 four]— one of which was to be tried in each year, and they 

 Btill more wisely determined to retain the money prizes aud 

 competitive trials. They, however, attended to many sugges- 

 tions as to the way in which these prizes shoiild be adjudi- 

 cated, and these trials conducted. As the evils of the old 



system have been very ably exposed by Mr. Howard and others, 

 it may not be uninteresting or unprofitable to glance at some 

 of the chief objections which are still urged against implement 

 trials in general, and the Royal Agricultural Society's prises 

 in particular. 



By way of preface, we would observe that all this hostility 

 to money prizes comes almost exclusively from those engaged 

 in the implement trade. No doubt prizes are bothering 

 things ; they satisfy only one maker, while they disappoint 

 dozens. The man who secures the second prize thinks he 

 should have had the first, and all the rest of the defeated aspi- 

 rants consider they should have had some share of the spoil, 

 or some word of commendation. The fortunate winner is not 

 exactly a happy man ; he is always dreading the defeat that 

 may await him next year by some competitor improving his 



