100 GARDENING WITH BRAINS -^ 



they also swallow young toads — I have rescued 

 some of them at the critical moment — so there 

 you are! Everything we do in this world is 

 both right and wrong. 



Casuistry invades the garden, too. Shall 

 we kill squirrels? They are such dear little 

 things; so amusing to watch; but they destroy 

 birds' eggs; and birds, after all, are more desir- 

 able, for they eat insects and they delight us 

 with song — so there you are again. And when 

 the birds eat your cherries or berries — ^but let 

 us draw a curtain over this perplexing problem, 

 except so far as it relates to the big birds we call 

 crows and chickens. 



Should gardeners kill the crows which destroy 

 field mice, moles, and other pests? No and yes. 

 A few days ago a young farmer told me how 

 one year the crows were so abundant that they 

 not only devastated the com fields, but dug out 

 and ate the potatoes just planted. They ate 

 also the poisoned com left for them in conven- 

 ient little piles. Then they flew on trees and 

 fell down dead. The skunks which ate them 

 also died, whereat the trappers raised a howl. 

 Curious concatenation: farmer, crow, com, 

 strychnine, skunk, trapper! 



Shall chickens be allowed in the garden or 

 orchard? In the orchard, yes, by all means. 

 I once noticed on a farm that the trees in the 

 part of an apple orchard open to the hens had a 

 full crop of fruit every year, whereas the other 



