MORE ABOUT APPLE-TREES. 14:9 



thus pays and repays the penalty of others' negli- 

 gence and misdoing until, discouraged and demoral- 

 ized, he abandons the hopeless struggle, and thence- 

 forth repels the enemy from a few favorite trees 

 around, his dwelling, and surrenders his orchard to 

 its fate. Thus bad laws (or no laws) are constantly 

 making bad farmers. The birds that would help us 

 to make head against our insect foes are slaughtered 

 by reckless boys many of them big enough to know 

 better and our perils and losses from enemies who 

 would be contemptible if their numbers did not 

 render them formidable increase from year to year. 

 We must change all this ; and the first requisite of 

 our situation is a firm alliance of the entire farming 

 and fruit-growing interest defensive as to birds, offen- 

 sive toward their destroyers, and toward the vermin 

 multiplied and shielded by the ruthless massacre of 

 our feathered friends. 



Since the foregoing was written we have had 

 (in 1870) the greatest Apple-crop throughout our 

 section that mine eyes did ever yet behold. It was 

 so abundant that I could not sell all my cider-apples 

 to the vinegar-makers, even at fifty cents per barrel. 

 This establishes the continued capacity of our region 

 to bear Apples, and should invite to the planting of 

 new orchards and the fertilization and renovation of 

 old ones. 



