177 



dig a deep hole in a neighbouring wheat field and bury 

 the whole affair. Neighbours remarked for years 

 afterwards that never had they seen such a crop of 

 wheat. So ended my maggot breeding establishment, 

 and ever since I have had to buy. What is the use of 

 talking about " Home Industries and the Encourage- 

 ment of the British Farmer " ! 



Just a word in conclusion. Without this triad — 

 gentles, mealworms and cockroaches — don't try to 

 keep soft bills, because it cannot be done. People tell 

 you that mealworms are too stimulating, that they pro- 

 duce gouty feet and I know not what. Without them, 

 birds won't long want feet at all. As for rearing 

 youngsters; no matter what they tell you in books 

 — the parents will absolutely decline to feed unless the 

 supply is what Bret Harte calls " frequent and free." 



Ants' eggs in season are invaluable. To get them 

 is a painful operation, for wood ants can bite, like the 

 very old gentleman, as we say up here, and formic 

 acid is not exactly eau de Cologne ; still if you keep 

 birds you will offer your legs as a willing sacrifice, and 

 you will try to be like the idols of which the Psalmist 

 tells us that "they have noses and smell not"! 



Wasp grubs are much liked by the birds, and if 

 you can screw up your courage to the pulling up of 

 the awful cold clammy things out of the comb you 

 will be well rewarded. But as our country families 

 say of their poor neighbours — "Really one must draw 

 the line somewhere" — well, so I say of wasp grubs — I 

 draw the line at them, and spiders ! If my birds want 

 them they must get them from somebody else. 



