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from three to six young robins about the garden most of the 

 summer, and in May, June and July there were many adult 

 birds. No sooner would any one go into the garden with plow, 

 harrow, cultivator, hoe, fork or spade, to stir the earth for any 

 purpose, than the robins would follow, picking up grubs, wire- 

 worms, earth worms, cutworms and ground beetles. There 

 were few insects they would not eat. They soon became so 

 tame that they would approach within a few feet of the worker, 

 and if grubs or worms were tossed to them they would come 

 and pick them up from the ground. 



White grubs, as most of you know, are the larvae of May 

 beetles of different species, and destroy the roots of growing 

 plants. They are serious pests in grass land or among hoed 

 crops. If numerous, they will soon ruin a strawberry bed or 

 a grass field, and because of their habits of burrowing in the 

 ground they are hard to control. Wireworms, which are the 

 larvse of click beetles, also live under ground, and destroy 

 the roots of plants, in some cases burrowing up the stems. 

 They are destructive to turnips and other root crops, as well 

 as to cabbage, celery and many vegetables, and must greatly 

 reduce the productiveness of grass lands. 



Cutworms are larvse of Noctuid moths, and probably do as 

 much injury both annually and periodically as any pest known. 

 They not only eat the foliage of many plants, but they cut off 

 the stems of young vegetables close to the ground, destroying 

 the crop. As they feed mainly at night and hide underground 

 or under some shelter during the day, they are seldom noticed 

 until the damage is done. Ground beetles are usually classed 

 as useful insects; but, as many of the species feed quite largely 

 on vegetable matter, their usefulness no doubt depends to 

 some extent on their being kept within proper bounds. Several 

 genera have been known, where numerous, to destroy grass, 

 weeds, grain or fruit. Some of them, notably of the genus 

 Harpalus, are becoming widely known as destroyers of the 

 fruit of the strawberry. Members of this genus were found 

 eating the seeds of the Japanese barnyard millet along the 

 borders of our garden. The robin constitutes a natural check 

 on the increase of these creatures, which, if held in their place, 

 are no doubt beneficial, but, if allowed to become too numerous 



