BIRDS AND INSECTS. 



ted or decomposed. The great advantage then of spreading out soils to the air, and the 

 influence of heat and light, with frequent turning previous to their being u.sed for potting, 

 will be instantly perceived. From these sources, they derive the greater portion of their 

 electrical properties, without which vegetation would become extinct. Nor is it saying 

 too much to refer tlie utility of digging and ridging to the same cause, as well as the pul- 

 verization of the earth and the admixture of nutritive substances. With some gardeners, 

 it is a habit to throw away the soil after having been once used for potting plants, but 

 the practice is not to be commended; the rather is it a wasteful and injudicious proceeding. 

 Much better would it be to expose the soil for two or three years to the influences 

 of the atmosphere, and to turn them frequently during that time. Then, by adding 

 a little well rotted manure, the same soil would become again available, and equally 

 as good as it was before. Where the right kind of soil is scarce, and must be purchased, 

 this is a consideration of some moment, and deserving of no little attention. If soils are 

 not renovated and restored by these atmospherical influences, every portion of the culti- 

 vated earth would long since have become a dreary waste, and all our most valuable vege- 

 table productions would now be unknown. 



It was once the common practice to purify the soil by burning, and it has been recom- 

 mended to destroy all extraneous matters by a strong heat. These processes are doubt- 

 less useful, but, except for the better pulverization of strong and stiff earths, they cannot 

 be recommended for general adoption. The atmospherical exposure and frequent turn- 

 ing are greatly to be preferred for their efficiency, and are entirely adequate to the com- 

 plete regeneration of the soil. 



Enough has now been said to show the great importance of giving attention to this sub- 

 ject in a practical point of view, and we trust that what has been advanced will have the 

 effect of inducing cultivators to investigate the matter with a great deal more minuteness 

 than has yet been bestowed upon it. W. W. Valk, M. D. 



Flushing, Sept. 11, 1852. 



BIRDS, INSECTS, etc. — AGAIN. 



BY J. C. H., SYRACUSE. 



Mr. Tucker — In several notices which I have seen of my article on " Birds, Insects, 

 and other matters," published in the July number of the Horticulturist, I observe that 

 the writers have, as with one accord, made such haste to pick me up, that they could not 

 possibly wait until I was fairly down. Aiming always to express my opinions in terms 

 that will not admit of misunderstanding, I was a little piqued at my failure to do so in 

 this instance. On recurring to the article, however, I can find no cause for self-reproach 

 on this score; and I must set down the coincidence of error on the part of my critics, as 

 a kind of unaccountable epidemic. 



In speaking of the utility of birds, what I said was, " It is a common belief that they 

 are great benefactors of man in the destruction of pestiferous insects." To this belief I 

 avowed my infidelitj% basing it upon the fact that, after close observation for many years, 

 I had never seen any of the birds with which we are most familijir, prey upon any of se- 

 veral species of insects which I enumerated as particularly pernicious or "pestiferous," com- 

 prising a greater part of those whoso destructiveness is most frequent and annoying about 

 gardens and orchards. What I seem perversely to be understood to say is, that birds do 



