1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEH. 



467 



more than there is in three thousand pounds of 

 fresh cow dung. Wool and woolen rags decom- 

 pose very slowly in wet, stiff soils ; therefore, if 

 used in their natural state, they should be spread 

 upon sandy, or light, warm, loamy land, and 

 plowed in. On such land they are lasting and 

 valuable manures. Great quantities of waste 

 wool and woolen rags are used to manure the 

 hop grounds in England, and the hop-growers 

 there readily pay $25 to $50 per ton for them as 

 a manure for their grounds. From the slow de- 

 cay of wool and rags, they probably can here be 

 most economically employed when previously 

 rotted by being made into a compost, and then 

 applied to the wheat crop. — Dansville Herald. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FBUIT VERSUS BOBINS. 



The robin question is becoming one of serious 

 moment, or, certainly, of more importance than 

 those not directly concerned seem to be aware. 

 The Bird Law, sent through the Commonwealth 

 on hand-bills last spring, was received, in this 

 neighborhood at least, as a very pretty specimen j 

 of Imperial Legislation. Most people here think 

 that a man should have an undisputed right to 

 his own fruit. They fully believe that a free cit- 

 izen, of a moderately free country, should be 

 allowed to protect his own fruit in his oivn gar- 

 den, against the depredations of any wild beast, 

 or bird, that runs or flies. But, although they 

 claim the right, they do not unduly exercise it. 

 Farmers are not devoid of all humanities. 



The cultivators of the soil are the tried and 

 special friends of birds, and only when necessity 

 compels, do the farmers of this State destroy or 

 disturb them. They are not the class of men 

 who kill robins for the paltry purpose of making 

 a meal of tliem. They are no enemies to a law 

 against wanton destruction, but the fault of that 

 law is, that it ignores all cases of necessity. It 

 punishes us for destroying certain birds in places 

 where they have already become a positive evil ; 

 and yet provides no other remedy. 



Giving robins the absolute freedom of the 

 fruit garden, not only insures a waste of fruit, 

 but deprives us of the services they would other- 

 wise render. If kept away from our fruit, they 

 must seek their food in field, pasture, apple- 

 orchard, and cultivated portions of the farm. 

 But, if left undisturbed, wherever fruit is grown 

 they will congregate. They will build their nests 

 in the immediate neighborhood, rear their young, 

 and all feed and fatten on fruit that human be- 

 ings ought to have. With undisturbed posses- 

 sion, each brood will waste enough to supply 

 a family of six persons with all the fresh fruits 

 they need. 



But some say that they pay for the mischief 

 they do by protecting fruit from insects, &c. 

 From what do they protect it? In this neigh- 

 borhood it is from angle-ioorms ! Yes, angle- 

 worms, and nothing else, save from the rightful 

 owner. 



"Save from the curculio." Indeed ! Under 

 the very beaks of a hundred robins I cannot get 

 one plum per tree. "Protect from canker- 

 worms." They don't even keep the leaves that 

 cover their nests from being covered by canker- 



worms. As to their making such havoc among 

 canker-worm grubs in spring, allow me to say 

 that I never have yet seen a fruit-grower who 

 places any reliance upon such protection. Very 

 few grubs, beetles, bugs or insects, need other 

 life-insurance than plenty of fruit and fish-worms 

 within fifty rods. 



Being omnivorous, robins can feed upon al- 

 most any thing, but where their choice is to be 

 had, fruit is chosen. They feed their young for 

 a few days with worms, or grubs and insects, if 

 more readily obtained. But soon as the first 

 strawberries ripen, they begin to feed upon fruit 

 so costly that few human beings can afford to eat 

 it. From this time, through the entire season, 

 they are, in many gardens, an unmitigated nui- 

 sance. They also do much harm by keeping 

 away more useful, and really insect-eating biids. 

 Very few of these will stay where the noisy and 

 quarrelsome robins are very numerous. A shep- 

 herd who sets a sheep-stealing cur to guard his 

 flock, might consistently advise fruit-growers to 

 keep robins to protect fruit. But I insist that 

 not he or any Legislature has the right to com- 

 pel a man to accept such advice. If any owner 

 of a flock should be compelled by law to keep 

 such dogs as devoured a sheep or lamb every 

 day, instead of better dogs, or, none at all, he 

 might readily understand the workings of the 

 Robin Law. 



The physicians tell us to eat more fruit. "Give 

 us more fruit," say old men and young, women 

 and children, rich and poor, — all the denizens of 

 our cities. "Cultivate more fruit, farmers," say 

 Editors, Gentlemen and Lawyers, and then 

 straightway combine to make a law forbidding 

 them the privilege of protecting the fruits they 

 have already taken unwearied pains to grow. A 

 happy measure of encouragement, truly ! A 

 murmur of dissent among farmers is heard, and 

 then comes the cry, "Cultivate fruit enough to 

 feed birds and all." That reads finely in the 

 play, but the acting it gives another and very 

 different view. 



I have tried that theory a few years, not in a 

 gentleman's parlor, not in a lawyer's office, not 

 in horticultural rooms, nor yet in the Legisla- 

 tive Hall, but in a place most suitable to test its 

 merits thoroughly. Ten years ago I set a few 

 strawberry vines on a farm where many kinds of 

 birds were plenty, but no species exceedingly so. 

 Robins were plenty enough to prevent my setting 

 cherry trees, for those who had full-grown ones, 

 could get little save half-ripened, unwholesome 

 fruit. Two seasons the robins ate some straw- 

 berries, but not many. I set more vines, and 

 more birds found them. 



I set currants, gooseberries, raspberries and 

 grapes, which lengthened the fruit season, and 

 the robins began to leave the surrounding farms, 

 and come and board with me. They became 

 very destructive. 



I would not kill, but tried to frighten them. 

 Young robins don't fear any thing much. The 

 old ones would frighten, and fly, and return and 

 feed alternately, from daylight till dark, if I 

 could spend time to do the frightening. The 

 result was, they wasted so much, that from two 

 bushels of green gooseberries I could not obtain 

 four quarts of ripe ones. I could leave no cur- 

 rants on the bushes for home use — could sell 



