152 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



much lower, some higher. From some of the bushes set in our 

 own plantation in 1891 we harvested twelve quarts the past sea- 

 son. Even with an average of two quarts per bush, however, 

 the crop is a profitable one to grow. 



DAYS WITH OUR BIRDS. 

 By INIrs. Kate Tryox, Cambridge. 



The following synopsis of Mrs. Tryon's lecture was prepared by her. 



When your committee did me the honor to ask me to speak to 

 you on my favorite subject, I at first felt it necessary that I 

 should study long and well the food habits of my birds, that I 

 might not commit the mistake of recommending you to love any 

 birds which, as horticulturists and agricultuiists,you never could 

 or never ought to love. Study I did, — with a result which can 

 be summed up in two minutes. I thought it little worth while to 

 repeat to you tales of the wonderful reproductive energy of 

 noxious insects — you, who know but too well the sad facts of 

 the case. I deemed it unnecessary to tell )ou at this late day — 

 wdiat you know very well — that birds were created by a wise 

 Providence to keep this insect host in subjection. You know 

 that the bird-haunted country is more fertile than the birdless 

 country, and you know the punishment that has come to coun- 

 tries which, like France, have allowed their birds to suffer 

 slaughter. You know that our own birds are not protected 

 and encouraged as they should be. I feel certain that you, as 

 students of nature, are convinced of this. How, then, is it my 

 duty to treat the subject of the hour? Certainly I should show 

 myself unappreciative of my opportunity, did I not, above all, 

 aim so to speak of your friends, the birds, as to stimulate new 

 interest in them — so as to make you resolve that we must have 

 more, not fewer, of them. 



"Fortunately or unfortunately for my subject this morning, I 

 myself have had absolutely no experience as farmer or gardener, 

 and shall not presume to decide whether or not the crow and the 

 English sparrow must go. That problem is beyond me. I leave 

 it for your society, at some particularly lucid moment, to settle 



