Season of 1816. 205 



makes its ravages, are rarely to be seen, and not more 

 than a single bird, or a very few indeed together. Even 

 the common crow (a ravenous devourer of vermin) ap- 

 pears here to be almost extinct. 



Having never made the changes these insects under- 

 go a subject of study, I must be silent on that head ; 

 but if the society should be led to believe, that the ab- 

 sence of their natural destroyers is a main cause of their 

 present increase and alarming depredations, a remedy pre- 

 sents itself, if the public will be prudent enough to adopt it. 



Let it be recommended, under the sanction of their 

 respectable authority, to printers through the state, to 

 urge (as of serious importance) that sportsmen, young 

 and old, should abstain from shooting or otherwise de- 

 stroying blackbirds, robins, jays, catbirds, swallows, 

 spaiTows, &c. &c. If I be right in my conjecture, the 

 most valuable consequences to agriculture, will follow 

 such a jubilee, and the measure has this to recommend 

 k, that its motive may be made clear to every man's ca- 

 pacity ; and if it should produce no solid good, it is at 

 least an act of mercy. 



No wheat that I have yet known will uniformly resist 

 the attacks of the fly ; nor do I believe, from the nature 

 of the attack, that such a wheat will ever appear. Jones's, 

 and the orange straw, (bearded,) seem to suffer least. 

 The surest preservatives are strong manuring and late 

 sowing ; not so late, however, as to hazard the mildew. 

 No previous preparation of maize will prevent the cut 

 worm ; but steeping in putrid chamber-lye, or liquid tar, 

 and rolling in plaster or sulphur, one part of the latter to 

 four, will quicken and invigorate the first growth, and 

 nearly save the grain from destruction by birds. It might 



