THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



87 



ENGLISH SPARROW. 

 To THE Editor of The, Canadian HoKXictiLTiTRiST: 



Dear Sir, — If what I read in the 

 Toronto daily newspapers is correct 

 your association has fell foul of the 

 English sparrow once more, and as I 

 was born and spent all my early days 

 in a fruit growing section of England, 

 and where the sparrow was far more 

 numerous than in any part of Ontario 

 ■ — so numerous that one halt-penny 

 was paid for evei-y one brought to a 

 certain official appointed by the Coun- 

 cil, and notwithstanding . the above 

 facts T beg to express my astonishment 

 at a fruit grower being an enemy to 

 the sparrow, for certain I am that the 

 sparrow is the best friend he has 

 amongst the feathered tribes. He 

 does the fruit gi-ower all the good he 

 can. He eats the tent caterpillar's 

 eggs ; he eats the spider's eggs, and 

 even the spider dii-ts up our fruit 

 with its webs ; and for three consecu- 

 tive years the sparrow cleaned off all 

 the caterpillars from my cabbages. 

 Unfjrtunately the latter service they 

 do not perform until they have done 

 nesting (the last of August), and the 

 caterpillars do considerable damage Vje- 

 fore that date, but I tind dusting buck- 

 wheat flour on the cabbage to be a sure 

 cure ; any other flour is just as good 

 but more costly ; any other fine pow- 

 der will do just as well as flour. But 

 this is running away fiom the poor spar- 

 row, and I do not wish to do so until I 

 have asked those of your readers who 

 accuse him of eating, yes ! the bud of 

 the gooseberry bushes and I know not 

 how many more bushes, to reconsider 

 the matter, to withdraw their verdict 

 \uitil they see a hundj-ed or so of them 

 light on one of their bushes, and have 

 hopped and picked all over the bush. 

 After this and the sparrows have gone, 

 if Mr. Fruitgrower will kindly step 

 out and examine the bush I will guar- 

 antee he will find all the buds on the 



bush. If all will do this they all will 

 ask themselves the question " What 

 were the little creatures picking at if 

 not the buds ] " The answer to this 

 question I will leave in the hands of 

 our worthy president. Some will be 

 wondering why a half- penny was paid 

 for his head if he did so much good, 

 and as I believe in both sides being 

 seen I will, with your permission, show 

 the other side of Mr. Sparrow, not 

 that the fruit growers of my native 

 country ever saw but one side, and did 

 not contribute one cent willingly to 

 have the number reduced. No it was 

 the farmers who complained against 

 the poor wretch, and got the Council 

 to offer a reward of a half-penny for 

 his poor head, as I suppose they 

 thought this better than to have to 

 hire boys to guaid their wheat fields. 

 Had they (the farmers) grown sun- 

 flowei'S the sparrows would have had 

 their share of them, too. And I would 

 recommend market gardeners and 

 others to sow a few sunflowei"s near 

 their cabbages to atti-act the sparrows ; 

 if they do this the spaiTows will take 

 some of the seed, and will clean out 

 all the caterpillars. Some in Canada 

 say the sparrow diives other birds 

 away ; some have even said they kill 

 the native birds. They will certainly 

 take possession of the holes in build- 

 ings, ic, that swallows had nested in 

 the year previous, so that when the 

 swallows come why of course there is 

 a little fuss for a day or so, but the 

 swallow finds itself another place to 

 nest in, as also does the blue bird. 

 This I am certain is all the trouble be- 

 tween the sparrow and other birds, 

 and I am also certain that the wheat 

 and sunflower are the only two grain 

 crops that they do any harm to, and 

 this only when in a soft or milk state. 

 I have read about his eating oats. I 

 have even read that he was wholly 

 destroying the French-Canadians' bar- 



