18G9. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



303 



Hoe and keep them well cultivated, when not 

 wet. 



Beets. — Keep them well hoed and thin out 

 to six or eight inches apart. As the early 

 crop comes into use, save at least one of the 

 best and earliest to grow, . and retain it for 

 growing seed from next year. If the pro- 

 spective winter crop seems short, "Early 

 Blood Turnip" may yet be planted with a cer- 

 tainty of a fair crop, if sown in rich, warm 

 soil and loell tended. 



Celery. — Plant out in well prepared 

 trenches, shading if the weather is hot. Give 

 abundant watering, if the weather is any ways 

 dry, and the soil well drained. Keep clean 

 of weeds and cultivate well. 



Cucumbers may yet be planted for pickles, 

 on well prepared, warm, quick soil. Hoe 

 those already up, and protect them from the 

 "striped bug" and other enemies. 



Manure. — Throw all weeds, potato tops, 

 turf sods, and anything capable of decompo- 

 sing into plant food, into the compost heap, 

 and pour over it the house slops, soap suds, 

 &c. 



Melons. — Destroy the bugs and thin to 

 three plants to a hill. Keep them clean of 

 weeds, by hoeing and pulling the weeds by 

 hand. 



Potatoes. — It is better not to hoe them 

 much after blossoming, but to keep them 

 clean of weeds by pulling and cutting them. 

 Make the hills large enough and high enough 

 to cover all the growing tubers, or they will 

 be greened and injured for eating. Early 

 planted should furnish us good boiling sized 

 tubers during the month. Select for digging, 

 hills having the fewest, largest and most ma- 

 ture tops, as they will be likely to contain the 

 most mature potatoes. 



Tomatoes. — After blossoming and setting 

 fruit, pinch off the ends of such shoots as con- 

 tain the fruit, and train the vines to trellises, 

 or lay brush to keep them up from the ground 

 Early ones will begin to ripen during the 

 month. 



Turnips. — The Ruta Baga and Sweet Rus- 

 sia should be sown early in the month ; Yel- 

 low Aberdeen about the middle of the month ; 

 the other soft English turnips from the 25th to 

 the last of the month, or, in good soil and 

 favorable locations, as late as the 10th of Au- 

 gust will answer some seasons. 



W. H. White. 



South Windsor, Conn., 1869. 



For the Neio England Farmer. 

 EIRDS ON FARMS AKD ORCHARDS. 



I was about to reply to some remarks on this 



subject in the Farmer of May 22, when I fell 



upon the enclosed, which is to the point, and 



I would ask you to publish it in the Farmer. 



Birds on Farms and Orchards 



An extensive experiment has been made on the 

 Continent, the result ot which has been the opin- 



ion that farmers do wrong in destroying crows, 

 jays, &c., and the small l)irds on their farms, es- 

 pecially where there are orchards. That birds 

 occasionally do mischief amongt ripe grain, there 

 can be no doubt; but the harm they do in autumn, 

 is amply compensated by the good they do in 

 spring, by the liavoc they make amongst the in- 

 sect tribes. The quantity of grubs and bucs de- 

 stroyed by crows, and of caterpillars and their 

 grubs by various sma.U tiiids, niu^t be annually 

 immense. Other tribes of birds which teed on the 

 wing, destroy millions of winged insects, which 

 would otherwise infest the air and become insup- 

 portably troublesome; even those usually sup- 

 posed to be mischievous in gardens, have actually 

 lieen proved to be innocent, for on examination 

 they have been found to destroj'' those buds onlv, 

 which contained some destructive insect. On 

 6ome very large farms, the proprietors determined 

 a i'Qw years ago, to offer a reward for the heads of 

 crows, but the issue proved destructive to their 

 farms, for nearly the whole of their crops failed 

 for three succeeding years, and they have since 

 found it necessary to import birds to restock their 

 farms ! And of late years, the extensive destruc- 

 tion of the foliage and young fruit trees in or- 

 chards, by a species of caterpillar, has excited the 

 attention of the naturalist; and it has been found 

 to have arisen from the habit of destroying those 

 small birds about orchards, v/hirh, if they had 

 been left unmolested, would have destroyed or 

 kept down these destructive insects. 



Every crow requires at least one pound of food 

 a week, and nine- tenths of their food consists of 

 worms, grubs and insects ; one hundred crows 

 thiu, in one season, destroy 4780 pounds of worms, 

 grubs, insects and larva. From this one fact, some 

 slight idea may be formed of the usefulness of 

 this much persecuted bird, the farmer's best friend ; 

 but a thousand more well-attested facts nii^ht be 

 stated to show the value of birds to the farmer, if 

 more were needed. Let then, every farmer, and 

 eveiy one who is interested in the labor of the 

 farmer — and who is not ? do what he can to pro- 

 tect them, and the face of the country will no lon- 

 ger present the appearance of a scorched and 

 Ijlasted wilderness, but will preserve its beauty to 

 the eye, and the trees will produce their Iruit in 

 season. 



Early the other morning a pair of the Bal- 

 timore Oriole (Gold Robins,) attacked a nest 

 of young caterpillars on an apple tree near 

 the window where I am writing. No gour- 

 mand was ever more zealous over a broiled 

 Ortolan or an edible Birdsnest, than this pair 

 was in breakfasting on the young caterpillars. 

 But one nest was not sufficient. After utterly 

 demolishing the first, they visited another, 

 and were still breakfasting when I left to get 

 mine. Kill the birds ! When you do it you 

 empty your purse ! Let 'Em Alone. 



Essex County, Mass., 1869 



Remarks. — Our own opinion, which has 

 been often expressed in these columns, is that 

 crows are of more benefit than injury in the 

 world. Still the question of the balance ol 

 the good and evil which they and other birds 

 effect on the farm is not one to be settled by 

 an editorial ipse dixit. Others may differ 

 from us, and possibly we may see cause to 

 change our opinion. In the last number of 



