TOMATO FOR CITY GARDEN PLOTS. 



are not " great benefactors" in that way. And here I not only reiterate my former de 

 cJaration of infidelity, but I add to its enormity by avowing my unalterable conviction 

 that the birds are practical!}^ guardians, protectors, preservers of the whole generation 

 of insect olagues. You, sir, have given, quite unconsciously, one of my chiefest reasons 

 for this belief, in enumerating among the insects which they destroy, that one, entirely 

 inoffensive to man, j^et resolute, untiring, and insatiable in his destructive pursuit of other 

 insects, the spider. In view of the almost unanimous avidity with which this universal 

 benefactor is pi'eyed upon by birds, and most especially b}' that incarnation of impudence 

 and voracitj', the cedar bird, who, after fulfilling his contract to strip clean our cherry 

 trees, falls furiously upon the spiders, as though he was under bonds to clear creation of 

 their presence before sun-down; in view of this avidity, if I could be provoked to raise 

 m}' gun against them at all, it would be, not for their depredations upon my cherries, but 

 that they devour my spiders. Look at their number and variety — pervading all nature, 

 and continually on the alert! Not an incipient curculio, passing from the fruit he has 

 destroyed, who has not to run the gauntlet of a dozen watchful dragons before he can 

 find refuge iu the earth. The winged insects, quiet and concealed by daj', and thus se- 

 cure from the attack of birds, are caught at night by thousands, in toils which every- 

 where beset them while flitting from place to place, disseminating new colonies of their 

 race. Gnats, flies, bugs, worms, millers, grasshoppers, snakes! all fall victims to the in- 

 genious entanglements, the vvil}' stratagems, the secret ambuscades, or the open assaults 

 of this their universal and untiring enemy. What part they performed in preserving for 

 our use the crops of the earth, and what proportion of them in comparison with other 

 insects, are destro3'ed by the undistinguishing slaughter of the feathered race, it well be- 

 hooves the inconsiderate adulators of the latter to inquire, before yielding to them the un- 

 qualified merit, so injust, so indiscriminate, and yet so fashionable, and so cheaply render- 

 ed, of being, if not the onl}', at least the unequalled benefactors of mankind. J. C. H. 



Syracuse. Sept., 1S52. 



ON THE TOMATO FOR CITY GARDEN PLOTS. 



BY AN AMATEUR, NEW- YORK. 



The old adage that, " where there is a will, there is a way," experience has repeated- 

 ly convinced me admits of exemplification, in few pursuits to a greater extent, than iu 

 that of gardening. Being passionately fond of everything like a fruit or a flower, the 

 contrivances that I resorted to frequently in earl}"^ life to indulge my inclinations in these 

 particulars, before I had the conveniences for their cultivation which subsequently were 

 at my disposal, have satisfied me, that the true enjoyment of a taste for horticulture, 

 may be had with a little reflection and ingenuity, at a far less cost than the world in 

 general suppose to be indispensible for its gratification. 



My object in this paper in alluding to this subject, is to induce a recurrence to it by 

 others; in order that many of them who may not happen to care about tomatoes, may 

 by reading my observations, be led to experiment upon the application of simple means 

 within their reach, to the growth of other things, whether fruit or flowers, which, from 

 want of reflection on the subject, they may at present suppose those means to be wholly 

 inadequate to effect, when, in reality, it is only the idea, which they have need 

 enable them to apply them profitably. 



