132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



sound is sufficient to arouse you. At a light, intermittent 

 pattering sound on tlie roof you are awake at once. It is 

 only a gray squirrel running over the roof. As you rise to 

 prepare for the duties of the day, it is hardly light enough 

 clearly to distinguish objects in the gi'ove. From the 

 wooded In'ookside the sweet and solemn tones of the wood 

 thrush float tremulously to your ear. Now a robin sings 

 boldly from the top of a tall tree, Avhcre he can see the 

 promise of day in the cast ; another takes up the refrain, and 

 by the time you have reached the garden the full bird chorus 

 pours forth from the surrounding woods. Mingled with the 

 refrain you hear the distant trill of the chipping sparrow 

 rising and falling like the breath of a sleeper in the fields. 

 The oven bird awakens the echoes of the woods with a 

 staccato note. The light, cool breath of the morning fans 

 your cheek as it comes up from dewy meadows laden with 

 the fragrance of lilies and azaleas. The eastern sky is rosy 

 Avith the dawn, and as you gaze upon the beauteous scene 

 dark shadows fade and fly. Aurora climbs the glowing 

 firmament and morning walks al)road upon the fields. With 

 a heart filled with thankfulness you slowly sink on bended 

 knee and go to killing squash bugs, — otherwise, you would 

 get few squashes. Much as the farmer may admire the 

 beautiful in nature, he cannot spend the early morning 

 hours in idle contemplation. 



As you look abroad over the garden, you see robins 

 hopping here and there, searching for earth Avorms, cut 

 worms and grubs. Early in the season robins find many 

 earth worms, but later, as the soil loses much of its mois- 

 ture, these Avorms cannot be found so readily, as they 

 descend to greater depths, and the robin must depend 

 largely on insect food for its own subsistence and nourish- 

 ment for its brood. OAving to the abundance of the robin 

 in our neighborhood, it easily led all other birds as a 

 destroyer of garden pests. It is one of the few l)irds that 

 habitually seek their food on the ground in the garden early 

 and late Avhen the cut Avorms are abroad. The abundance 

 of robins in the vicinity may be accounted for in part by 

 their fondness for their roost in the pine grove. In 1901 



