WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



of most of the lesser mammals, which are favored 

 by man's operations in various ways. For the 

 raccoon he cultivates miles of rows of sweet corn, 

 and for the woodchuck provides a vast expanse of 

 grass-land and garden-patches. He has fought 

 for the opossum and the skunk the battle of the 

 weak against wildcat and wolf, and has enabled 

 the former to extend its domain east of the Hudson 

 River, where it was not primitively known — that 

 great stream having proved an apparently in- 

 surmountable barrier to the spread of our comical 

 little marsupial; and for both of them he nurtures 

 a vast increase of insect-food and sundry luxuries 

 that the woodland bill of fare did not often afford. 

 The porcupine he tolerates as an amusing com- 

 panion of his woodcutting, sugar-making, and 

 fishing camps, and for fox and weasel the farmer's 

 wife rears excellent poultry. It is for the mink 

 and otter, among other beneficiaries, that govern- 

 ments stock and restock their brooks and ponds 

 wdth fish, while corporations dig canals and 

 maintain reservoirs at great expense to make the 

 most satisfactory of homes for the muskrats. 

 Who shall say men are not kind to the lesser 

 animals ! 



There are animals, as I am again reminded b}^ 



14 



