WASS^. 



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1870.] secretary's report. ^iS^Or ^^ 



sown on April fourth, a month later than they ought to have Gl^*i|ifcgjDme%)f 

 them have already been cleared off and sent to market, where they 

 at the rate of £41 per acre." 



The statement is full of similar details, a complete citation of which would 

 occupy too much space and time. The conclusion was reached that, " as each 

 crop is labeled, showing the time of planting and the results that have been 

 achieved, the beholder cannot but be astonished at the rapidity with which the 

 various crops have sprung up and reached their present state of growth." 



For two centuries have the inhabitants of this Commonwealth been commit- 

 ting waste ; dissipating, without thought for the morrow, all that affluent pro- 

 vision which a beneficent Providence had garnered up for human use through- 

 out the ages. Within the last five years have the dwellers in this Heart of the 

 Commonwealth lavished their energies and substance to facilitate the process 

 of devastation, and to counteract, so far as lies within their power, the recuper- 

 ative agences of nature. The cry of alarm, first sounded in behalf of this 

 Society, from this place, has been echoed by a few watchful observers. Yet 

 the denizens of the valley are but too prone to scout the warning when the 

 peril is even imminent to the watchman upon the heights. 



Pursuant to the instructions of the Trustees, a petition, duly attested by the 

 signature of the Secretary and the seal of the Society, was presented to the 

 Great and General Court, at its latest and most lingering session, praying for 

 permission to citizens to destroy birds, predaceous of fruit, vegetables, etc., 

 upon their own premises. This petition, with an independent memorial in aid 

 thereof from the Secretary, in which facts were stated and the names of wit- 

 nesses furnished, was referred to its Committee on Agriculture by the House ot 

 Representatives. Days and weeks elapsed, in which the current newspapers 

 of this County were carefully watched for an order of notice designating some 

 day for an audience of the petitioners. By chance, such order was at length 

 detected in the columns of the "Boston Advertiser — a pretty practical hint 

 that the community must take cognizance, at their peril otherwise, of more 

 things than the public statutes. This " hearing," however, like all which suc- 

 ceeded it, was appointed for Thursday — an insuperable obstacle, therefore, to 

 the attendance of the Secretary, who was not authorized to close the Library 

 for any such purpose. To his written application for the assignment of a dif- 

 ferent day, was returned the courtesy of unbroken silence. Finally, instead of 

 the permission solicited, the Committee reported back a bill allowing the 

 species of birds complained of to be killed upon private premises during the 

 months of September, October and November ! That is, after a majority of 

 the fruits which it was sought to protect should have been long out of season. 

 The license to destroy the Jia-dus migratorius , or pseudo-robin, in November — 

 how considerate and gracious ! In the contemporaneous accounts of the action 



upon this bill, it is narrated that " the absurdity of the house, with its very 

 small experience in sporting, and its slight knowledge of tjie habits of birds, 



