84 



NEW ENGLAND FAR^VIER. 



Jan. 



on a larger scale, to make them available to 

 the plant. They must be finely divided in 

 the field as well as in the chemist's crucible. 

 When a piece of land is what we call run out 

 or exhausted, only those elements which were 

 available to plant life are used up ; and we 

 must either wait the slow action of heat and 

 cold, rain and air, to produce those available 

 elements from the soil, or we must apply them 

 in a condition already available, and generally 

 known as manures or fertilizers. The chem- 

 ist, therefore, may be able to decide whether 

 the elements necessary to fertility are in the 

 soil ; but with all his science he cannot deter- 

 mine whether those elements are in a condi- 

 tion to be immediately available as plant food. 

 This vegetation alone can decide. t. w. 

 Boston, Mass., Nov., 1869. 



For the New England Farmer, 



SPARE THE BIRDS. 



Tbus will every man who has any interest in the 

 soil, and who is worthy of the human form, ex- 

 claim with me, when he has had the same instruc- 

 tion that I have had on the subject. Idle boys ! 

 rambling about, shooting birds from mere wanton- 

 ness, have you never bee;i taupht by your parents 

 or guardians that it is morally wrong for you to 

 commit such piracy upon the feathered "tenants of 

 the air," without any other motive than that of in- 

 dulging in the debasing sin of cruelty ? If you 

 have never been taught this, much less, perhaps, 

 have you been taught that it is physically wrong, 

 and against your own interest aiid that of your 

 neighijors. 



But it may be asked, why am I so interested in 

 the birds, and of what consequence are they ? I am 

 interested in a pecuniary point of view ; they save 

 and protect my property, and yet they do no more 

 for me in this way than for every other man who 

 tills the soil, or who is fed by the proceeds ; and 

 yet, people, regardless of their own interests, will 

 suffer them to be destroyed ! 



A week or two ago, I was walking in a corn-field, 

 witnessmg with no very good humor the devasta- 

 tion by the grub-worms; whole square rods be- 

 ing cut down by these underground destroyers, 

 with not a blade left ? There, said I, go my labor 

 and expectation through the long and weary days 

 of spring! Thus I moved on, and observed many 

 hills with the blades left untroubled by the worms, 

 but a small hole was bored down an inch or two 

 deep, close to a corn blade in each hill. This, said 

 I, is the work of the felon crows ; what the grubs 

 leave, they can destroy,— thinking that they made 

 the hole to rob the blade of the kernel. But ob- 

 serving the great numlier of perforations and no 

 corn pulled up, as is the usual manner of crows, I 

 dug down, and to my surprise, found the kernel 

 there. Then the truth flashed upon my under- 

 standing, — this is the work of the birds. In the 

 moining when the grubs arc near the surface, and 

 close to the corn blades to begin their gluttonous 

 work, the birds instinctively dig down with their 

 beaks, seize and devour the grul)s, or bear them 

 away to their young ones ; thus saving thousands 

 of hills from the common destruction. 

 , Again, have you never observed in sultry weather 

 before rain, the swallows fly skimmingly through 

 the air near the earth ? They are catching insects 

 that arc forced by some change in the atmosphere 

 above, to take possession of its lower strata. And 

 60 their invariable occupation is brought before 

 our observation ; namely, that of destroying the 



myriads of insects that poison our atmosphere, and 

 render it malarious and pestilential. I wish that 

 State Legislatures would enact severe laws that 

 would place such idle bird killers in the houses of 

 correction of their respective States, where they 

 can be effectually reformed in this respect. 



Parents and guardians, I entreat you, use your 

 best influence over your children and wards and 

 stop such outrages ; take the green-hide if neces- 

 sary, but by all means prevent it. Again I say, 

 "spare the birds." 



The foregoing, written by myself, was pub- 

 lished in the Boston Cultivator twelve years 

 ago. Time has only confirmed the truth of 

 the assertions then made. The present year 

 I have cultivated a piece of corn on the south 

 side of a contiguous wood, where many birds 

 had their nests. The ground was apparently 

 filled with grub worms, as the hoe frequently 

 brought them up in sight. I noticed the dili- 

 gence with which a pair of robins examined 

 the corn rows ; pausing with head erect a mo- 

 ment, then running swiftly along till with a 

 sudden dive and motion of the wings they 

 would seize a grub and bear it to their nest in 

 the wood, then immediately return and reciom- 

 mence the search, coming up fearlessly within 

 fifteen feet of me, knowing, perhaps, that I 

 was their friend. My corn was eaten but very 

 little, while as I learned from a neighbor that 

 his, which was not situated near the woods where 

 the birds were so plenty, was badly dealt with, 

 and he was obliged to go over the rows and 

 dig the grubs himielf . 



I have heard some so-called farmers com- 

 plain that the robin redbreast and the gold 

 rol;in eat their cherries and green peas, as 

 though those were all the crops they had to 

 lose. What little they might lose in that re- 

 spect was doubly repaid by protection of their 

 field crops. 



Naturalists seem to be divided in opinion as 

 to the usefulness of the crow. One of your 

 correspondents, not long since, declared from 

 personal observation that the crow lives largely 

 on the oi^^pring and eggs of birds. I am at 

 present inclined to credit the charge, for many 

 a time is the vagrant crow seen flying over our 

 fields with half a dozen small birds on his back, 

 pulling at his feathers, and as many more in 

 the chase being eager to assault him as a com- 

 mon enemy. They know, doubtless, who are 

 the invaders of their domestic castles, better 

 than we do. I, for one, have suffered much 

 from the depredations of the crow in the corn- 

 field patiently, believing that his virtues more 

 than compensated for his faults, but if the 

 charges of your correspondent are to be added 

 to his other crimes, let him be exterminated ! 



Epinng, N. II., 1869. M. J. Harvey. 



— A Champaign County, 111., correspondent of 

 the Country Gentleman says he doubts whether 

 Central Illinois has raised more than half wheat 

 enough to supply the bread eaten therein for the 

 next year. 



