1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



219 



For the New England Farmer. 



BUCKTHORN FOR HEDGES. 



I should like to be informed through your month- 1 

 ly Fanner, the best way to raise buckthorn f'romi 

 seed, and how it should be finally set out and treated 

 so as to make a strong and safe fence against cat- 

 tle and horses, I want next spring to plant or set 

 out hedges to considerable extent. I have been 

 experimenting on the osage orange for two or three 

 years, and while I find its growth is much more 

 rapid than that of the buckthorn, I have become 

 satisfied that it cannot be made to stand the cold 

 climate of northern New England, and that the] 

 buckthorn is the true article for us to cultivate for ' 

 hedges. We have now some evidence that more 

 attention is being paid than formerly to planting! 

 hedges for ornamental fencing, and as our taste fori 

 ornamenting gardens and pleasure grounds increases, 

 we shall find that well-trimmed hedges will be con- 

 sidered absolutely necessary to complete the arrange- 

 ment of every piece of ornamental ground. I be- 

 lieve, sir, that this sort of fence will come to be con- 

 sidered by-and-by as safe and as cheap, if not cheap- 

 er, than any other fence for enclosing and dividing 

 farm lands. I should be glad to see the subject 

 discussed in your valuable paper. Chas. Bowen. 



Montpelkr, Ft., lSo7. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE SWALLOW FAMILY—No. 5. 



BY LEANDER WETHERELL. 



How find the myriads, that in sumincT cheer 



The hills and valleys «ith their ceaseless song=;, 



Due sustenance, or, triiere subsist i/teij nmc 7 — Cutrper. 



The stork knoweth her appointed times; the turtle, the 

 crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming. — Bible. 



Having, in the preceding articles on the swal- 

 low family, presented some of the most interesting' 

 and important facts connected with its summer vis-j 

 its and habits while here, it now remains to cons-id- 1 

 er more directly the old, lingering and strangt 

 tradition that is still entertained by some elderly i 

 and very worthy peof)le, that swallows hyliernate, 

 some in old w-alls, hollow trees, sand-hills, and 

 other secure places, where they sleep until warm! 

 weather returns; and others pass the winter im-j 

 mersed under ice, at the bottom of rivers, ponds, ! 

 lakes, and 'i\Q sea, where they remain in a torpid' 

 state until summer calls ihem forth from their! 

 places of hybernation. Others, and with much 

 more plausibility, maintain, that they emigrate toi 

 the moon and there pass the winter. And others 

 still, wilh both probaliility and observation in their j 

 favor, regard the swallow family as birds of pas- 

 sage, emigrating southward to a warm climate, 

 where they pass the time of winter in conscious 

 pleasure, ministering, in the meantime, to the hap- 

 piness of man, for whom they are and were created. 



These various speculations concerning the bru- 

 mal retreat of these birds have tended greatly to 

 increase their celebrity among naturalists. The no- 

 tion that they pass the winter in the moon's atmo- 

 sphere, or in some satellite nearer the earth, as 

 noted by DeWitt Clinton, has very few advocates. 



More believe the myth that they sleep in hollow 

 trees, caverns, walls and sandbanks. The ingenious 

 Dr. Owen, in his "History of Serpents," was of 

 this notion. But the testimony of Audubon al- 

 ready given as bearing on these points, after care- 



ful observation and examination with direct refer- 

 ence to these statements as found recorded in old 

 works on natural history, is sufficient to under- 

 mine all such beliefs. He examined the "swallow 

 trees" and the excavations of the bank swallows, 

 and never found a solitary bird in the torpid state. 

 This is the direct testimony of one of the most dis- 

 tinguished ornithologists that the world has ever 

 known. It should, therefore, as it does, with the 

 exception of a few rare cases, satisfy inquiring 

 minds on this subject relative to hybernation. 



Olaus Magnus, archbishop of Upsal, is said to 

 have first broached the opinion that they hybernate 

 at the bottom of lakes during the winter. He grave- 

 ly says, "ihat these birds are often found in clus- 

 tered masses at the bottom of the northern lakes, 

 mouth to mouth, wing to wing, foot to foot ; and 

 that they creep down the reeds in autumn to their 

 subaqueous retreats ; that when old fishermen dis- 

 cover such a mass, they throw it into the water 

 again ; but when young, inexperienced ones take 

 it, they will, by thawing the birds at a fire, bring 

 them indeed to the use of their wings, which will 

 continue but a very short time, owing to prema- 

 ture and forced revival." To show that the arch- 

 bishop did not lack credulity, it appears, that "af- 

 ter having slocked the bottom of lakes with swal- 

 lows, he stored the clouds with mice, which came 

 down in copious showers upon the valleys and 

 plains of Norway and the neighboring countries." 



George Edwards, F. R. S., also member of the 

 Society of Antiquaries, London, and an anthor of 

 works on natural history, remarks that ''some of 

 our own countrymen have given credit to the sub- 

 mersion of swallows ; and Klein patronizes the doc- 

 trine strongly, giving the following history of their 

 manner of retiring which he received from some 

 countrymen and others. They asserted, that some- 

 times the swallows assembled in numbers on a 

 reed, till it broke and sunk with them to the bot- 

 tom ; and their immersion was preluded by a dirge 

 of a quarter of an hour in length ; that others 

 would unite in laying hold of a straw with their 

 bills, and so plunge down in society ; others, again^ 

 would form a large mass by cUnging together with 

 their feet and so commit themselves to the deep." 



"Such," says Edwards, "are the relations given 

 by those that are fond of this opinion ; and, though 

 delivered without exaggeration, must provoke a 

 smile. They assign not the smallest reason to ac- 

 count for these birds being able to endure so long a 

 submersion without being suffocated, or without de- 

 caying, in an element unnatural to so delicate a bird ; 

 when we knovv^ that the otter, the cormorant and 

 the grebes soon perish, if caught under the ice, or 

 become entangled in nets ; and it is well known 

 that those animals will continue much longer un- 

 der water than any others to which nature has de- 

 nied that particular structure of heart necessary 

 for a long residence beneath that element." 



"Though entirely satisfied in our own mind of 

 the impossibility of these relations," says Edwards, 

 "yet desirous of strengthening our opinion with 

 some better authority, we applied to that able an- 

 atomist, Mr. John Hunter; who was so obliging as 

 to inform us, that he had dissected many swallows, 

 but found nothing in them diff'erent from other 

 birds as to the organs of respiration. That all those 

 animals which he had dissected of the class that 

 sleep during winter, such as lizards, frogs, &c., had 

 a very different conformation as to those organaj 



