130 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



etc., chasing his steps and all but getting under his 

 feet in their eager quest of grubs, bugs, etc., is a 

 spectacle to be devoutly thankful for. Whenever 

 clouds of birds shall habitually darken our fields in 

 May and (less notably) throughout the Summer 

 months, we may reasonably hope to grow fair crops 

 of our favorite Fruits from year to year, and realize 

 that we owe them to the constant, and zealous, 

 though not quite disinterested, efforts of our friends, 

 the Birds. 



But I do not regard the ravages of Insects as en- 

 tirely due to the reckless destruction and consequent 

 scarcity of our Birds. I hold that their multiplica- 

 tion and their devastations are largely incited by the 

 degeneracy of our plants caused by the badness of our 

 culture. On this point, consider a statement made 

 to me, some fifteen or twenty years ago, by the late 

 Gov. William F. Packer, of Pennsylvania : 



"I know (said Gov. P.) the narrow valley of a 

 stream that runs into the west branch of the Susque- 

 hanna, which was cleared of the primitive forest 

 some forty or fifty years since, and has ever since 

 been alternately in tillage and grass. A road ran 

 through the middle of it, dividing it into two narrow 

 fields. A few years ago, this road was abandoned, 

 and the whole of this little valley, including the 

 road-way, thrown into a single field, which was 

 thereupon sown to Wheat. At harvest-time, this re- 

 markable phenomenon was presented : A good crop 

 of sound grain on the strip four or five rods wide 



