132 — How to Make the Garden Pay. 



easy success in fighting them is due to the assistance of friendly 

 creatures, and altogether he is often too thoughtless and unwise 

 in their treatment. He strikes right and left, without mercy or 

 discrimination. He shoots the birds because they eat a few 

 cherries. He kills every snake or toad that comes in his way, 

 either from inborn prejudice or because he supposes these crea- 

 tures to be ugly, entirely forgetting that " handsome is that 

 handsome does." He traps the skunk that hunts and feeds on 

 grubs, etc., because he wants to sell his skin. He scares away or 

 poisons grub-eating crows, traps and shoots owls and hawks that 

 live mostly on mice and insects, and lets city sports hunt, drive 

 away, and kill or maim the quail and partridges that keep his 

 cornfields free from cut worms and root-borers. With equal 

 eagerness he destroys injurious and beneficial insects. 



First of all, save and protect the birds. Almost all of them 

 are insect-eaters, and many among them, even English sparrows, 

 are at one time or other helping to clear the farmer's fields ana 

 gardens of insects. The young of the English sparrow are 

 raised almost entirely on insect food. So are the young of robin 

 " Redbreast." Grown birds feast on grasshoppers, cicadas. May 

 beetles, etc., whenever they have a chance, preferring this diet t& 

 other food. Crows, owls, and many hawks usually do us more 

 good than harm. Quails, like crows, are great grub-eaters. 

 They need protection, not persecution. 



All reptiles, from the alligator down to the smallest lizard, 

 toad, or snake, are the gardener's friends, tried and true, as they 

 wage an unceasing war against his enemies. As the alligator 

 keeps rabbits and coons in check, so the smaller reptiles prevent 

 the over-rapid increase of many species of noxious insects. No 

 reptile, however, can be of greater service to the gardener than 

 the much-despised, homely toad. Place one or more specimens 

 in a hotbed or cold frame, and see the insects disappear. Every 

 crawling thing that comes within sight and reach of the toad, 

 may its smell be ever so disgusting, its flavor ever so rank, its 

 shell ever so hard, falls a prey to the toad's voracious appetite. 

 The toad seems to be always ready for business. Don't kill 

 the toad. Its value as an insect-eater is more generally 

 recognized in England and France than here, for the homely 

 animal has become a regular article of trade in the markets of 

 London and Paris. The demand for the article by English 

 gardeners, in fact, exceeds the home supply, and dealers have 

 begun to look to this country for additional stock. In small 

 gardens we might often employ toads as guards around 

 hills of choice melons, squashes, etc., by providing them with a 

 suitable guard house or hiding place, under a piece of board, a 

 stone, or some rubbish right among the plants. 



