Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS :: :: 



Vol. V. ] 



JUNE, 1912. 



[No. 2. 



CC 



Farm, Garden, and Birds. 



55 



In " Farm, Garden, and Birds," the latest 

 publication of the Royal Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, a somewhat new 

 departure has. been made. The pamphlet 

 is the outcome of an invitation given by 

 the Society to practical agriculturists and 

 horticulturists to contribute, in the form 

 of essays, their experience and advice on 

 the best methods of protecting grain, 

 fruit, and other crops from the attacks 

 of birds without destroying the birds 

 themselves. It is not propagandist 

 Uterature ; the writers were not asked to 

 argue about the utiHty of birds, nor was 

 there any allusion to this phase of the 

 subject in the conditions laid down. 

 Contributors were free to assume, either 

 that birds are on the whole destructive 

 and must therefore be kept off the land ; 

 or that birds are on the whole useful and 

 should therefore be preserved. All that 

 was asked was a description of useful 

 methods for guarding crops from their 

 attacks. 



The invitation was well responded 

 to, papers of an eminently practical 

 character coming in from all parts of Great 

 Britain, detaihng measures taken and 

 recommended by those who have a 

 thorough knowledge of their subject, and 

 who are by no means inchned to be 

 sentimental where practical working 

 directions are required. 



The essay to which the Silver Medal 

 was awarded, also the Second Prize 



essay, are printed in full. Many of the 

 othere were of so interesting a character 

 that the Society would have been glad to 

 print them also in their entirety ; but it 

 was decided that the practical utiHty of 

 the pubUcation would be greatest if a 

 number of selections bearing on special 

 points were made from some of the papers 

 and placed before the reader as concisely 

 as possible. Extracts are accordingly 

 grouped under various heads, deaUng 

 with the protection of field, fruit-planta- 

 tion, and vegetable garden ; and giving 

 a large number of full and definite 

 directions, suggestions, and working 

 instructions for the safeguarding of crops 

 by means of scares of various kinds — 

 rook-boys, automatic guns, scarecroAvs, 

 kites, tin and glass, windmills, etc. ; for 

 the provision of cages and netting for 

 fruit ; for the preparation of seeds and 

 the protection of seeds and seedHngs ; for 

 the best washes for fruit-buds, etc. It 

 is beKeved that these will be of great 

 value to thousands of growers, and the 

 cordial thanks of the Society are offered 

 to all the Competitors for having placed 

 their knowledge and experience at the 

 service of the many professional and 

 private cultivators who would prefer to 

 preserve fruit and corn without the 

 destruction of bird-Hfe. 



The fact of such a competition being 

 organized by the R.S.P.B. may be taken 

 as evidence that the supporters of the 



