Protection for the Crops 



friends and likewise many enemies. Which class is the 

 greater is difficult to say. Certain it is that birds pre- 

 vent an overstock of injurious insects, but they will not 

 confine themselves to a meat diet. They are all such 

 strivers towards vegetarianism. This is where they 

 become our enemies. We should endeavour to find out 

 what birds are friends to us throughout, and spare them 

 always, but spare the others only when they are service- 

 able, and ward them off or destroy them when they 

 begin to be troublesome. It has often been asked 

 whether it would not be better to have the garden 

 thoroughly protected from birds by netting in the whole 

 of the garden. Apart from the great expense, it would 

 be found that much time, labour, and material would 

 have to be expended to keep down insect pests, which 

 could be better used in increasing the standard of 

 cultivation. It is certainly a good plan to keep birds 

 from the plants or the fruit when they would do more 

 evil than good, but this is only during a few months 

 of the year, and it is only fair to allow them free ingress 

 when they are able to benefit the crop. There are 

 numberless methods of making scarecrows to frighten 

 birds from a large area. In the case of seed beds nets 

 should be stretched tightly across at a distance of quite 

 one foot from the soil and tightly pegged down. Break- 

 ages in the net may be repaired with string. In netting 

 fruit such as strawberries it is better to stretch the 

 material over the fruit at a height of five feet, so that 

 there is no occasion to take it off at each picking. 



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