260 



A JOG IN THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



chickadee, or black capt titmouse, and the 

 nut-hatch, and sometimes the downy wood- 

 pecker. All of them relish a piece of fresh 

 fat meat; (salt meat is injurious to them.) 

 In the country, the blue jay will come regu- 

 larly for a breakfast of corn ; he is also a 

 lover of fresh meat, but should not be per- 

 mitted to visit the garden or orchard in the 

 summer, as he is known to devour the 

 eggs and young of other birds. My friend 

 next put up troughs, plowed out about an 

 inch deep and an inch wide, in a solid 

 piece of pine wood about three feet long ; 

 these he attached by screws to the outside 

 window frames, placing one opposite to 

 each bar of the lower casement, and one on 

 the window' stool; into which he put the 

 various kinds of seeds named above, from 



which the birds fed without fear, as they 

 were unable to look into the house, it being 

 darker than their own position, so that the 

 persons in the room could silently approach 

 within a foot of them. Seven kinds of 

 birds have been known to make their daily 

 calls through the winter, and some of them 

 in great numbers, especially at the approach 

 of a snow storm. These little visitors are 

 amusing, and their innocent society helps 

 to cheer us through the winter. 



Ornithology. 



Rhode-Island, Nov. 12, 1649. 



[We recognize the pen of a friend, whose 

 enthusiastic and genuine love of nature has 

 made a long life happy in the indulgence 

 of such studies and feelings as these. We 

 shall be glad to hear from him again. Ed.] 



A JOG IN THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



BY AN OLD DIGGER. 



When the month of November comes, it is 

 worth while to look about a little, and see 

 how you stand in the garden and orchard. 

 You must be a miracle of expertness if you 

 have not failed in some crop or other, or if 

 some tree or plant has not baffled your 

 wits. Well, this being the case, now is 

 the time to look about and resolve, either 

 that you will succeed better next year, or 

 that you will abandon that crop altogether. 

 So, go into your kitchen garden ; if your 

 soil is poor, or worn out and full of insects, 

 this is the very time of all others to doctor 

 it; and here is my prescription, which I 

 have proved over and over again. Clear 

 off the plot of ground to be renovated, and 

 cover it with a good dressing of fresh stable 

 manure, with the litter in it. Begin at one 

 side of the plot, and throw up the soil into 

 ridges, digging it about 18 inches deep, 



and mixing the manure through the soil as 

 you dig. Here let it lie all winter. The 

 atmosphere and the frost will have a grand 

 chance to do their best in bettering the 

 quality of the soil itself; and the essence of 

 the manure will not only be all taken up 

 by the soil, but its coarseness will be broken 

 down by the spring, so that your plot will 

 be in the best possible order for vegeta- 

 bles when the swallow comes. 



If you are troubled with grubs and in- 

 sects in the ground, (and you must be some- 

 thing more than a " big bug" yourself, if 

 you are not,) then you must also treat it 

 with a dose of salt. Scatter any refuse or 

 coarse cheap salt over the earth before you 

 begin to ridge it up, at the rate of a bushel 

 to the eighth part of an acre — or eight 

 bushels to the acre. Put on at this sea- 

 son, it will do no harm to anything vegeta- 



