No. 4.] BIRDS ON THE FARM. 157 



The lecturer has brought prominently to your notice 

 the value of these l)irds to us as farmers, and it is some- 

 thing that cannot be computed. We could imagine the 

 value of these birds, if they were taken away for one or 

 two years, for we should have nothing to be thankful for 

 at this season of the j^ear, so great is their help. 



We encourage birds at our home. We have a great many 

 of them, and we keep them there as well as we can. A few 

 years ago I was just recovering from a sickness, and there 

 came a very severe storm ; snow and cold were biting, and 

 the birds took refuge in an arbor vita? hedge I had. They 

 remained there during the night, and in the morning they 

 would go to the garden, where my careless husbandr}' left 

 seeds, and they gathered them and came back for protec- 

 tion in that hedge ; and it was pleasant for me to look out 

 upon those birds and see they were being cared for during 

 that storm. 



This year there were one or two instances on the farm 

 that may be interesting. In mowing one of my fields near 

 the house Ave mowed with the machine and raked with the 

 machine, and then when we came to gather up the hay we 

 came upon a nest of larks nearly ready to tl}'. The horses 

 had travelled over the ground, the mower liad cut the grass 

 over their little heads, the rake had followed and dumped 

 the windrows on the nest, and yet the}^ were safe. We 

 protected them, — put a mark over them, so they would 

 not be disturbed. The}' were very nearly ready to fly, 

 and after a few days went away. We had another nest 

 almost in sight of the windows of our house. There was 

 a quail sitting on her nest with sixteen little eggs under 

 her, and she sat there as pleasantly Avhile we moAved over 

 her or around her ; and she sat and watched us with as 

 much confidence as though we Avere her friends and we had 

 known her all om- days. I Avatched, and perhaps ten days 

 later she Avent off Avith her sixteen birds, and I saw no more 

 of her until I found she was feedina: her voung in a corn 

 field, and there she brought up her young ones. I left my 

 office one Saturday, and arrived home about 4 o'clock. 

 My men were husking corn, and those quail had been right 



