* LADYBIRDS AND TOADS 101 



trees played the usual aggravating seesaw be- 

 tween too much one year and nothing at all the 

 next. In 1920 New York had a bumper crop of 

 apples, while Maine at least this part of it 

 had only a bushel or two. Of our own trees 

 the only ones bearing that autumn were the 

 two which in the preceding fall got each a pail- 

 ful of enrichment from the henhouse. 



CHICKENS AND THE GARDEN 



In gardens, too, chickens would be desirable 

 if they would only behave themselves ; but they 

 don't. They would be welcome to all the grass- 

 hoppers they could catch and all the worms they 

 could scratch; but when they eat young plants, 

 or ripe tomatoes, or dig out precious plants in 

 quest of insects, you gently but firmly drive 

 them back to their inclosure. What I do with 

 our flock of fifty is to let them out on the pasture 

 for an hour daily; the grasshoppers and moths 

 and other critters they swallow in that time are 

 a valuable addition to the diet which we don't 

 have to pay for. 



If the chickens are of no use to the garden 

 except when all the damageable crops are in, 

 after which they should be turned loose in it all 

 day the garden, on the other hand, is of great 

 use to them. In speaking of pigs I refer to the 

 now fully recognized importance of greens in 

 their diet because of their growth-promoting 

 food salts. Chickens, too, grow faster and are 



