AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 311 



employed in guarding us from that which no human fore- 

 sio-ht or labor is enabled to avert, our ears are assailed, our 

 persons are endangered, our fences are broken, our crops are 

 trodden down, our cattle are lacerated, and our flocks aro 

 disturbed by the idle shooter, regardless alike of the expen- 

 sive attempts of the experimental farmer, or of the stores of 

 the laboring husbandman ; whilst all the energies of his 

 frame and the aim of his skill are directed towards the mur- 

 der of a few little birds, worthless when obtained. The in- 

 juries which arc immediately committed by himself and his 

 dogs are small compared with the multiplied effects of the 

 myriads of insects which would be destroyed by the animals 

 whereof they are the natural prey.' 



BUSHES. In many parts of our country, the pasture 

 grounds are infested, and often overrun with noxious shrubs ; 

 this is the most slovenly part of our husbandry, and ought 

 to be cured. 



Eradicating them, says Deane, requires so much labor, 

 that farmers are most commonly content with cutting them 

 once in a few years. But the more cuttings they survive, 

 the longer lived they are apt to be, and the harder to kill, 

 as the roots continually gain strength. 



It is undoubtedly true, that cutting bushes in the summer 

 will do more towards destroying them than doing it in any 

 other season, particularly in August. Other circumstances 

 being equal, the wettest weather is best for destroying shrubs 

 by cutting. Spreading plaster on ground where bushes have 

 been cut may tend to check their re-sprouting, by encourag- 

 ing the growth of grass. 



It is said to be a good method of destroying bushes, to cut 

 them with hoes close to the surface, when the ground is 

 frozen hard ; and that more may be destroyed in a day in 

 this way than in the usual method of cutting with a bush- 

 scythe. 



Bushes which grow in clusters, as alder, &c., may be ex- 

 peditiously pulled up by oxen; and this is an effectual way 

 to subdue them. 



Elder is considered harder to subdue than almost any 

 other kind of bush ; mowing them five times in a season, it is 

 said, will not kill them. The roots of the shrub-oak will 

 not be killed but by digging them out. 



