1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



375 



wing. He is said by those who have observed his 

 habits to be remarkably diligent and expert in tak- 

 ing his prey, and to be in the habit of destroying 

 and carrying to his nest a greater amount of pro- 

 vision than is necessary for the supply of his fam- 

 Uy. 



The reader may form a conception of the useful- 

 ness of the owl from the following remarks of Mr. 

 Waterton : He says that "if ihis useful bird caught 

 its food by day, instead of hunting for it by night, 

 mankind would have ocular demonstration of its 

 utility in thinning the country of mice ; and it 

 would be protected and encouraged everywhere. It 

 would be with us what the Ibis was with the 

 Egyptians. When it has young, it will bring a 

 mouse to the nest every twelve or fifteen minutes. 

 But in order to have a proper idea of the enormous 

 quantity of mice which this bird destroys, we must 

 examine the jjellets which it ejects from its stom- 

 ach in the j)lace of its retreat. Every pellet con- 

 tains from four to seven skeletons of mice. In six- 

 teen months from the time that the apartment of 

 an owl on an old gateway was cleaned out, there 

 has been a deposit of above a bushel of pellets. 

 * * * When farmers complain that the barn owl 

 destroys the eggs of their pigeons, they lay the 

 saddle on the wrong horse. They ought to put it on 

 the rat. Formerly I could get very few young pig- 

 eons, till the rats were excluded effectually from the 

 dovecote. Since that took place, it has produced 

 a great abundance every year, though the barn 

 owls frequent it and are encouraged all around it. 

 The barn owl merely resorts to it for repose and 

 concealment. If it were really an enemy to the 

 dovecote, we should see the pigeons in commotion 

 as soon as it begins his evening flight ; but the pig- 

 eons heed it not ; whereas, if the sparrow hawk or 

 hobby should make it? appearance, the whole com- 

 munity would be up at once ; proof sufficient that 

 the barn owl is not looked upon as a bad or even a 

 suspicious character by the inhabitants of the dove- 

 cote." The English barn owl alluded to by Mr. 

 A^'aterton, is likewise indigenous in America, 

 hough not so common as the red owl. 



Few persons are aware of the vast amount of 

 mischief which may be committed in our fields by 

 field-mice, which, without some such check as that 

 of the owl, would multiply with incredible rapidity. 

 Mr. Jessie remarks in his "Gleanings" that "an ex- 

 traordinary instance of the rapid increase of mice, 

 and of the injury they sometimes do, occurred a 

 few years ago in the new plantations made by or- 

 der of the Crown in Dean Forest, Gloucestershire, 

 and in the New Forest, Hampshire. Soon after the 

 formation of these jilantations, a sudden and rapid 

 increase of mice took place in them, which threat- 

 ened destruction to the whole of the young plants. 

 Vast numbers of these were killed, the mice having 

 eaten through the roots of five year old oaks and 

 chestnuts, generally just below the surface of the 

 ground. Hollies also, which were five or six feet 

 high, were barked round the bottom ; and in some 

 instances the mice had crawled up the tree, and 

 were seen feedmg on the upper branches. Various 

 plans were devised for their destruction ; traps were 

 set, poison laid, and cats turned out ; but nothing 

 appeared to lessen their number. It was at last 

 suggested that if holes were dug into which the 

 mice might be enticed or fall, their destruction 

 might be effected." These holes were made in 

 Dean Forest about twenty yards asunder, and from 



eighteen to twenty inches in depth, hollowed out 

 much wider at bottom than at the top ; so that the 

 animal when once in could not easily get out again. 

 In these holes at least thirty thousand mice were 

 found in the course of three or four months, and it 

 was calculated that a much greater number were 

 taken out of the holes by weasels, owls, magpies, 

 &c. The food of the field-mouse is exclusively 

 vegetable, and hence it is highly important to tht 

 farmer to prevent its increase. 



"HOE OUT YOUa EOW.' 



One la7,y day a farmer's boy 



Was hoeing out the corn, 

 And moodily had listened long 



To hear the dinner horn. 

 The welcome blast was heard at last, 



And down he dropped his hoe ; 

 But the good man shouted in his ear. 



My boy, "hoe out your row !" 



Although a "hard one" was the row, 



To use a plowman's phrase, 

 And the lad, as sailor's have it, 



Beginning well to "haze" — 

 "I can," said he, and manfully 



He seized again his hoe ; 

 And the good man smiled to see 



The boy hoe out his row. 



The lad the text remembered, 



And proved the moral well, 

 That perseverance to the end 



At last will nobly tell. 

 Take courage, man ! resolve you can, 



And strike a vigorous blow ; 

 In life's great field of varied toil 



Always hoe out your row. 



HAY CAPS. 



Enterprising, systematic farmers, who drive their 

 work, and never have so much on hand at one time 

 as to distract them, derive much benefit from the 

 use of simple, cheap caps to cover their hay at night, 

 or when there is a prospect of stormy weather. But 

 those slip-shod, crotchty fellows, who do everything 

 in a hurry and always by halves, who hate books 

 and manure cellars, and put a stone in one end of 

 the bag when they go to mill, are not expected to 

 find benefit in anything out of the kingdom of Old 

 Fogydom ! Tliey wouldn't cover a hay cock with 

 a cap — not they, they 're too slow for that. They 

 had rather let it lay and soak awhile in rain water, 

 and get it in at their leisure, some day next week,per- 

 haps. They don't know whether the cap should be 

 kept on through a hot sunny day, or not, and they 

 wouldn't kiss a pretty girl if they had the chance, 

 because her lips were young ! But that is not our 

 taste. We go for the caps, for sweet hay, sweet 

 lips, and young America generally, wishing Old Fo- 

 gydom all the comfort it can find in its arm-chair 

 with so many tantalizing objects about it. 



A Simple and Probably Efficacious Anti- 

 dote. — A correspondent of the London Literary 

 Gazette, alluding to the numerous cases of death 

 from accidental poisoning, adds : "I venture to 



