1878.J REPOnT OP THE SECnETABY. 49 



"hundred and fifty bushels of Cherries, annually. One -year the 

 " birds came in such flocks that between fifty and a hundred bushels of 

 " cherries were taken almost at once." He says " the idea of raising 

 " enough for the birds is 'jDlayed out.' The most destructive of these 

 " birds are the robin, (pseudonym for the Turdus,) cat-bird, oriole, 

 " and cedar-bird, the latter by far the most so. Judge Ramsdoll, of 

 " Traverse County, loses nearly all his cherries in this way, and he is 

 " going to let his trees go dowck" And so — with even more emphasis, — 

 from a cloud of witnesses throughout the Republic. But Legislative, 

 stolidity neither heeds nor cares, maintaining the safeguard of an unin- 

 terrupted close season, and rendering useless, through partial domesti- 

 cation, many species of birds that would be of admi ted service if rele- 

 gated to their fe7"a natura. Revive the timorousness, that should never 

 have been allayed, by a generous use of the shot-gun during the sum- 

 mer months, and thus compel them to substitute the Melolontha for 

 the berry and stone-fruit. With fewer of his exquisite strawberries in 

 their beaks, our friend upon Sunnyside may reasonably expect a surfeit 

 of that strident noise which he fondly mistakes for melody. Frightened 

 from the Farmstead and Garden, there may be some hope of a return 

 to be derived by those who have had wit and will to plant the Peach. 

 It is not extermination of Frugivorous Birds that has been or is now 

 advocated in these Reports. Rather the adoption or license of that 

 old-time policy which, by thinning out their numbers for a season, kept 

 alive their innate timidity and forced them to get their living according 

 to the dictates of Nature. If the sentimentalist desires to convert his 

 grounds into an aviary, no one will object. But let him keep his pets 

 confined, or restrain them from injuring his neighbors. With a close 

 quarantine, even the Turdus may be spared. 



The employment of Gum Shellac as a styptic in cases of the excision 

 of limbs from trees, has long been approved. Many years ago when 

 its price had become excessive, under the combined oppression of a 

 prohibitor}' tariii' and a depreciated currency — inevitable fruits of u 

 Civil War — your Secretary advised the use of Gas Tar as a substitute. 

 Quite lately, in reply to a query from a correspondent, the London 

 (Eng.) Garden remarks that "Gas Tar put on the stems of trees would, 

 " we fear, prove injurious to them." So our learned associate, the 

 Editor of the Gardener'' s Monthly, referring to " most absurd notions." 

 cites the following from the pen of Marshall P. WiLDER,,in the 

 Massachusetts Ploughman : " In the Ploughman of May 4th, a writer 



