DAMAGE DOVE-HOUSE LAWS. 135 



by these voracious and insatiate vermin, for in no 

 other light can they be considered by the agricul- 

 turist. 



The amount and value of this consumption, when 

 brought into the present price of wheat, rye, barley, 

 oats, beans, and pease, and assuming that an equal 

 quantity of each corn is thus consumed, but which 

 is far from being the case, as wheat is not only the 

 most inviting, but by far the most exposed to the 

 ravages of these birds, both at the seed time and 

 preceding harvest, will stand thus 157,500,000 

 pints=4,92 1,875 Winchester bushels, which at 6s. 

 per bushel, the present average price of the grain 

 before enumerated, amounts to 1,476,562 10s. 

 value of the agricultural produce of the country 

 consumed in this manner. To which is to be added, 

 the irreparable injury committed by pigeons in seed 

 time, by picking up every grain of seed, wherever 

 they alight, and the corn trod under and beaten out 

 by their wings before harvest, not to forget the real 

 damage they do to buildings by pecking the mortar 

 from between the bricks, a mischief which may, how- 

 ever, always be obviated by the constant allowance 

 of a SALT-CAT, which will also take their attention 

 from the garden to which they may be otherwise 

 destructive. 



On a general view of the subject, it appears that 

 the dove-house system has ever been one of ex- 

 treme injustice, as well as impolicy, in point of na- 

 tional advantage ; for in the first respect, it must 

 unavoidably happen, that great flocks must be main- 

 tained at the expense of persons having no property 



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