SUMMER [Chap. 



rags are of equally transitory influence. Powder 

 is the only thing of which they continue to be, 

 for any length of time, seriously afraid. 



83. Every part of the corn, from the time of 

 its germination, till it becomes flower ; blades, 

 blossoms, stalks, have great sweetness in them. 

 We know that fowls of all sorts eat grass with 

 as much avidity as pigs or sheep do. All birds 

 do the same ; and it is well known that rooks 

 frequently do great injury to wheat fields by peck- 

 ing off the spears soon after they come out of the 

 ground. These and other birds do the same, to 

 a certain extent, in all wheat fields, and in fields 

 of other grain. But, generally speaking, they 

 here do little injury, because there is always such 

 a superabundance of plants. It is not thus in a 

 corn field where there is not a plant too many ; 

 and, therefore, the birds must be kept off, and 

 effectually kept off, until the plants be three or 

 four inches high, and have lost a part of that 

 sweetness which is contained in the young spear, 

 proceeding, as this latter does, immediately from 

 the seed. 



84. Rooks, partridges, pheasants, crows, mag- 

 pies, jays, blackbirds, thrushes, larks, and several 

 other birds, but particularly the numerous and 

 impudent sparrows, not forgetting the pigeons, 

 and their first cousins, the innocent doves, which 

 last are the most mischievous and most cunning of 



