312 



Woodlands. — Birds on Farms and Orchards. 



Vol. VII. 



cedure, with the losses sustained by the 

 other. Every practical farmer may esti- 

 mate for himself the value of his land for 

 agricultural purposes, and its productiveness 

 in propagating the growth of timber. The 

 use of money vested in woodland, would 

 generally be found to equal in value the 

 worth of such property at the end of twenty 

 years, without having, in the mean time, re- 

 ceived any benefit from the latter. 



It is probable the farmer would find it his 

 interest, where convenient to markets of 

 coal, and where the soil is good and ground 

 tillable, not to retain even enough of fire- 

 wood for home consumption ; since the land 

 necessary to supply such a demand, ad infini- 

 tum, might be rendered more profitable by 

 cultivation, than it would be if left to supply 

 timber for fuel. It may be to the farmer's 

 interest to have a good supply of timber 

 suitable for fencing, on his premises, to save 

 the great expense of transportation from 

 distant places where it may be grown 

 cheaper; but four or five acres to the hun- 

 dred, are quite sufficient for this purpose, if 

 well set with chesnut and locust; and if 

 not, they may easily be grown in nurseries 

 like fruit trees, from the seed, and trans- 

 planted to those places best adapted to their 

 reception. Both the locust and chesnut are 

 very rapid in their growth, as well as dura- 

 ble. When cut in August or September, 

 and made into good and substantial rails, it 

 is said they will last at least fifty years, 

 unless where coming in contact with the 

 ground. Both these trees send up shoots in 

 abundance, which supercede the necessity 

 of replanting. 



These observations are offered to the at- 

 tention of the landholder, who aims at a 

 profitable return for his investment; but if 

 desirable to retain or improve the beauties 

 of a landscape, at the sacrifice of some pe- 

 cuniary advantage, it is suggested whether 

 that object may not be as fully attained by 

 reducing, in some measure, the present su- 

 perabundance of wood, and in improving the 

 appearance of the remainder. 



Charles Painter. 



Concord, March 28tl), 1843. 



A man cannot be engaged in the offices 

 of husbandry, but many things will come 

 under his observation, from which Divine, 

 moral and philosophical conclusions are so 

 natural and obvious, that to avoid them, lie 

 must shut his eyes against the light of the 

 sun. 



T\ marring, prefer virtue before beauty, 

 and the mind before wealth. 



Birds on Farms and Orchards. 



An extensive experiment has been made 

 on the Continent, the result of which has 

 been, the opinion that farmers do wrong in 

 destroying crows, jays, &c, and the small 

 birds on their farms, especially where there 

 are orchards. That birds occasionally do 

 mischief amongst 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 havoc they make amongst 

 the insect tribes. The quantity of grubs 

 and bugs destroyed by crows, and of cater- 

 pillars and their grubs by the various small 

 birds, must be annually immense. Other 

 tribes of birds which feed on the wing, de- 

 stroy millions of winged insects, which would 

 otherwise infest the air and become insup- 

 portably troublesome; even those usually 

 supposed to be mischievous in gardens, have 

 actually been proved to be innocent, for on 

 examination they have been found to de- 

 stroy those buds only, which contained some 

 destructive insect. On some very large 

 farms, the proprietors determined a few 

 years airo, 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 re-stock their farms! And of late 

 years, the extensive destruction of the foli- 

 age and young fruit-trees in orchards, by a 

 species of caterpillar, has excited the atten- 

 tion of the naturalist; and it has been found 

 to have arisen from the habit of destroying 

 those small birds about orchards, which, 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 

 consist of worms, grubs and insects ; one 

 hundred crows then, in one season, destroy 

 4,780 pounds of worms, grubs, insects and 

 larvae ; 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 might be stated to show the value of 

 birds to the farmer, if more were needed. 

 Let then, every firmer, and every one who 

 is interested in the labour of the farmer — 

 and who is not] do what he can to protect 

 them, and the face of the country will no 

 longer present the appearance of a scorched 

 and blasted wilderness, but will preserve its 

 beauty to the eye, and the trees will produce 

 their fruit in season. — N. England Farmer. 



Let no man anticipate uncertain profits. 



