412 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDEKEB. 



[ JtbieVtilsm. 



that grand Mastarfi-Beed sowinR of yonrs, in which I was to 

 read my naiue in growing letter?, might with legs trouble and 

 equal reenlt have been a thin broadcast. There is no relief 

 from them at any time or place, for they are everywhere ; they 

 are on the housetop with their quarrelsome twitter, they are 

 round the chimneys, and last, not least, in the spouts ; not a 

 thunderstorm oomes, or a heavy rain, hut the spouts are 

 choked-up with tha straws and rubbish of the nests they are con- 

 structing. 1 paid last year upwards of ,1i2 for oleaiing spouts 

 out at different limes. All the gardens and orchards appear to 

 he theirs by right, they are on every fruit tree picliing-o£f the 

 huds, under the pretence of eseking caterpillars long before 

 they make their appearance. You never find them going near 

 the Gooseberry bushes when those are half-dead with the 

 ravages of the caterpillars of the magpie moth. I have lived 

 where there was a garden all my time, yet never met with a 

 family of sparrows that would have anything to do with them ; 

 had they done it but once in ten years they would have 

 atoned in a small measure for the loss they cause. I have 

 known them shell Peas, and be very happy all the time, and 

 that very near to old women who were paid for picking off the 

 caterpillars the sparrows might have eaten." 



"I have heard, Harry, those caterpillars are very bitter to 

 the taste, and much too dark to be relished as food." 



" Not much darker than the fruit buds they peck at during 

 the winter months, until, when spring comes, there is no blos- 

 som to open ; and then the nps and downs they make in every 

 freoh-done-up border, the spoiling of early flowers — the work 

 and the disappointment they thus cause are dreadful to con- 

 template. Of all birds they are the most determined ; any 

 hideous scarecrow you put up will only frighten for a short 

 time; even the painted tin cat running np and down the 

 border is poon of little worth, its very silence assures the old 

 sparrows it cannot harm. Why, a rook will tremble at the 

 sight of « gun, and be soared for a week by the smell of gnu- 

 powder; but those home-birds look down from their upper 

 heights without fear or trtmbling, and chirp, chirp, until one is 

 weary of beRring them." 



" Why do you not shoot them, Harrj- V " 

 " And riddle somebody's new crochet qnilt, as I did when a 

 lad, and had to pay damages. They are not worth the cost of 

 shot " 



" Perhaps what they destroy is ; hut, then, you do not care 

 lor small game. I daresay, Harry, a rook is a bettor mark to 

 hit than a sparrow." 



"More in the hnlb, it is true, Clara. I declare, there they 

 are again ; I will just give them one more fluster before they 

 have it all Ibeir own way. I do believe they consider we put 

 out the seeds to soak for their especial benefit." 



"Why do you not do, Papa, as Uncle Archie does ?" said one 

 of my wingless chicks ; " he gives them bitter grain to eat." 



" Poisoned wheat, does lie ? 1 am not sure we should use it 

 for such a purpose, and it is no easy matter to become possessed 

 of the bitter, I know by experience ; there is too much witness- 

 ing and book-figning for me. I have tried to purchase it more 

 than onco or twice, and failed ; somehow I could not manage it 

 — I suppose every man is a coward at some point or other ; 

 weakened by a soft place in the brain or the heel, I comfort my- 

 self with thinking that after all it is a mean way of ridding one- 

 self of a nuisance. I have run out of nearly every druggist's shop 

 in the town, after getting up my courage to enter, for as soon 

 as I name the deadly ingredient I desire, the shopmen eye me 

 with a queer pitying look, as if quite sure I had lost something, 

 and they shake their heads and mutter in low words about their 

 inability to believe it is only for biid-i. Once my heart beat 

 very fast, for I thought sure enough I was going to gain my 

 end, for the shopman asked rac no questions, but weighed, and 

 folded np, and sealed, and labelled with big letters 'Deadly 

 poison ; ' but when I offered the money more than the cost, yet 

 fully determined to wait for no change he coolly asked, ' Where 

 is your witness?' 'Witness, man! What do you mean?' 

 ' Some one to say you are going to make a right use of this — 



are in your right .' Oh! Clara, I assure you, I dashed out 



of the place at a speed I have never tested since my courting 

 days. I never walk down that street unless compelled, then I 

 keep on the oilier side. I do not think 1 shall ever summon up 

 strength of mind to go into a mefiicine shop again, so I hope 

 you will not take the fancy to be ill." 



" I am very glad yon could not purchase it, I could cot sleep 

 with poison in the house, some accident would have been sure to 

 have been the result. I should have been giving it to the 

 children, thiuking it was arrowroot." 



" Well, then, the sparrows must have their day, live on at 

 our cost. The sixth row of Peas is disappearing fast ; should 

 any stray Pea manage to tsuape, and live on to fruiting time, 

 I must engage farmer Thompson's boy with the rattle to keep 

 away the pilferers, or there will be nothing left for me but 

 empty pods. To think of our brothers on the other aide of the 

 world importing sparrows ; they little know what they are doing. 

 I wish they had all ours ; they are great feeders and little 

 workers, and we could well do without them. The worst of the 

 matter is there is no making a noise about them, or resorting 

 to any method of extermination, or there will be an Act of 

 Parliament in no time for their protection." 



" I think when you sow seeds you are niggard, not thinking 

 about the birds, or the probable number of old seeds which may 

 have been mixed up with the new, so the poor sparrows are 

 blamed for more harm than they do ; and every loss or failtire 

 is easily accounted for when the birds are out of favour." 



" Certainly, Clara, I have not your weakness for everything 

 wearing feathers, or I might be blind to their evil deeds ; and 

 as for not sowing plenty of seed, I usually take the quantity I 

 should use if we were not blessed with such a colony of sparrows, 

 then double the measure ; surely that is enough. I do not 

 believe our gardens have a worse enemy, it is peck, peck, all 

 the day long at something or other, no matter what. Pull 

 them rudely out of a flooded spouting, and they will straight- 

 way go and build in another ; drive them away with fluttering 

 rags or strips of paper from the tender growth of one bed, and 

 they will drop down all the more keenly on some undefended 

 portion. I have seen them tramp upon netting spread over a 

 bed of Crocuses until they could reach the flowers, then begin in 

 earnest the work of destruction, and but few would be left un- 

 touched a few hours afterwards. If I were Flora's gardener I 

 would wage terrible war against them." 



" And yet you will not have the blackbird or the thrash 

 driven away, and I am sure they make sad work with onr 

 Cherries and Strawberries? " 



" Oh ! but for months in the year they are quiet workers, 

 picking up worms and i-lugs. They well earn a right to some 

 little portion of our sweets, aud v,e can better spare fruit than 

 vegetables — but the sparrow, I am slow to believe he is of any 

 good." — Madd. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 It is with regret we have to announce that already symp- 

 toms of the Potato Disease have appeared. Mr. Bonald, 

 nurseryman, of Chichester, sent examples of it to the meeting 

 of the Koyal Horticultural Society on Tuesday, and in a com- 

 munication ou the subject, he says : — " The Potato disease 

 first showed itself hero on the Slst of May. On the first spot 

 the sets had been left in the ground all winter, and were taken 

 up and replanted on the same day, the sort being the Lapstone 

 Kidney. Others planted at the same time aud beside them are 

 not yet affected. These had been laid thinly in a loft all 

 winter." , ,. „ ,,. . - ,, , 



WORIv FOR THE WEEK. 



KITOBIEN GABDEN. 



Now is a good time to apply salt to Asparapui: and Sea-kale 

 beds ; about a pound to a square yard is sufficient. It ia a 

 waste to apply it after the plants have done growing, particu- 

 larly when the soil is at all inclined to be cold and stiff. Stimu- 

 lants applied now will enable the plants to lay up a good store 

 of organised matter for another season, and therefore in 

 addition to salt, occasional applications of liquid manure 

 should be made. The effect of this treatment will be per- 

 ceived in the autumn, for the plants will retain their green 

 colour much longer than others not so treated. The planting- 

 out of Broccoli. Winter Greens, Cabbafies, Gaulifowcrs, &o., 

 must be vigorously prosecuted, and every vacant space should 

 now be kept well filled up. Liquid manure will be in continual 

 request. Celenj, the trenches for the main crops should now 

 be prepared ; the spaces between the rows of Peas are very 

 suitable. The shade from the Peas will be very useful to the 

 Celery in its earliest stages, and they will be entirely removed 

 by the time they are likely to be injurious. Continue to top 

 Peas and Beans as they advance, and keep them well gathered 

 us they become fit for table. Another sowing of Dwarf Kidney 

 i'fuits'may be put in for succession, aud advancing crops of 

 these and Scarlet Runnc>-s should be well thinned-out. Con- 

 tinue to make ooea>ional sowings of Lettuces ; the White 

 Silesian for stewing, and the Bath Cos, Paris Cos, and Green 



