i8S 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 557 



of the occult laws of nature governing farm life. By a 

 knowledge of economic botany be is able to make the 

 most of his soil and crops by a judicious selection of 

 plants best adapted to his farm, both as regards soil and 

 climate. 



Insect enemies are becoming more numerous as the 

 country grows older. New insect pests are continually' 

 arising, and those that for long years have been branded 

 as "thieves and robbers" in the Old World are being con- 

 tinually introduced. "While these insect pests are a con- 

 stant thorn in the flesh to the illiterate farmer, the scien- 

 tist is able to ward off their attack, and thus be greatly 

 benefited, personally, by their general depredations. The 

 same is also true of germ diseases, such as pear blight, 

 peach yellows and the like, as such diseases make large 

 crops and correspondingly large prices possible only in 

 the hands of the skilled horticulturalist. 



A knowledge of physiology is also of great use to the man 

 who would make the most of the farm. Plant physiology 

 and veterinary science are branches of farm economy the 

 importance of which is just beginning to be realized. 



And last but not least the educated farmer is a man 

 able to devote much time to the literature of the day. In 

 the farm journals he finds the latest and best ideas of the 

 most progressive men which aid him in thinking and plan- 

 ning for himself, and in turn contributing his mite to the 

 agricultural press. 



There is an old saying that education drives men from 

 'the farm, but we are just coming to recognize the fact 

 that the average college graduate with a scientific educa- 

 tion, finds on the farm an opportunity for original inves- 

 tigation and financial success fully equal or exceeding 

 that in any other vocation. This assertion finds abundant 

 proof in the lives of many practically scientific farmers, 

 and also in the fact that numerous college men are going 

 onto farms every year, who become enthusiastic and de- 

 voted agriculturalists that hold their farms in the highest 



within his reach he enjoys absolute peace and seclusion 

 unknown to city life. 



Let us have more men with active brains and more cul- 

 ture and refinement in rural life, and we wUl hear less of 

 unproductive and abandomed farms and less of farmers' 

 boys going to the city for a more congenial business. 



We are rapidly approaching the time when a "survival 

 of the fittest" basis must characterize the life of the 

 American farmer. In times past our vast areas of tillable 

 land have formed a basis for almost eshaustless agricul- 

 tural operations. This state of affairs, coupled with the 

 fact that a man failing in all other vocations can make a 

 living on a farm — provided he possesses only the power of 

 mimicry born of ignorance — is sufficient to explain the low 

 intellectual standard on the farm, and also accounts for 

 the manner in which the cheap farmer is universally held 

 in derision. 



Severe competition on the farm is already being felt 

 and the poorest managers are continually going to the 

 wall. We forget that it is the man that hampers the agri- 

 cultural profession and not the farm that grinds its 

 occupant. 



The educated agriculturalist is slowly but surely driving 

 the uneducated and unthinking man from the field. With 

 the retirement of every quack and the corres]3onding 

 advent of the thinking man on the farm arena, is elevated 

 the whole agricultural profession, which is thus brought 

 one stejD nearer its true position that it justly held in 

 Roman times — the foremost rank of all the world. 



The uneducated man goes onto the farm as a last resort. 

 His other resources have either failed or never material- 

 ized, and he is compelled to eke out an existence in what 

 he considers a belittling business. On the contrary, the 

 educated man goes onto his farm out of love for his 

 chosen vocation, respect for his farm and faith in his 

 ability to make the farm an unqualified success. He 

 makes his home a model of comfort and convenience that 

 may well excite the envy and admiration of his most well- 

 to-do city brother. For besides the comforts and luxuries 



THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A PAIR OF ROBINS. 



BY OLrVB THOENB MTLLER, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



One never looks for eccentricities in the robin family, 

 and great was my surprise at the curious conduct of a 

 pair who came under my observation last Summer. I 

 fear their heads were turned by a disappointment to be- 

 gin with, for they successfully raised a brood of three 

 in a nest under the edge of the veranda roof, and never 

 displayed any vagaries. When the young birds had 

 flown, the deserted nest was removed, because the veranda 

 was to be painted. 



On beginning to think of a second brood, they seemed 

 greatly disturbed at the loss of their nest. They had 

 fixed their hearts on that veranda, and for days they 

 could not give it up, and judging from subsequent events 

 I am inclined to think it seriously unsettled them. They 

 insjjected every corner, the top of the columns where the 

 nest had been, the sujjjiort that held a string of corn for 

 the squirrels, a peg driven in under the roof, the niche 

 over the door, the chinks in the lattice, — none of them 

 were satisfactory, and at last they turned their attention 

 elsewhere. 



They did not seem to please themselves, although sev- 

 eral times we thought they were settled, and one day it 

 became plain that trouble was brewing between them. 

 Like some bigger folk, they had let their mutual calamity 

 sour them toward each other. 



Madam had plainly selected for the new homestead a 

 delicate crotch on a trail branch, close beside the veranda 

 where her heart was. This was the first sign of aberra- 

 tion of mind, for it was an absurd choice, ludicrously in- 

 adequate to the demands of a robin's nest, and her sensi- 

 ble little spouse refused to consent, but kept himself out 

 of sight and hearing of such folly. 



But she had made her decision ; she began to build. 

 The first I saw of her, she came with a beakful of dried 

 grass from the lawn, flew up to the selected branch near 

 the tree, and then ran out on it as on a path, till she 

 reached the crotch. I was delighted. I had long wished 

 to watch the whole process of building a nest, and here I 

 saw my chance. It was in plain sight, and the robins had 

 learned not to fear us. I placed myself, and the show 

 began. 



The bird came with her mouthful of grass, as I said, 

 and when she arrived at the spot, she simply opened her 

 beak and let her load fall. Some of it lodged in the 

 crotch, but most of it fell to the ground. Down she went 

 at once and gathered it up, returned by her pretty path, — 

 and repeated the performance ! 



Then a kind bird-lover from the house scattered some 

 short pieces of string on the walk for her use. She saw 

 them at once, came down, gathered up an enormous beak- 

 ful, returned to her branch, and dropj^ed them as she 

 had the grass. Hardly a particle lodged, and she went 

 down and brought it up again ; even a third time she re- 

 peated the operation. 



By this time it was plain to lookers-on that her heart 

 was not in her work, that she was merely " pretending " 

 to build, that, in fact, she was in a " tiff," undoubtedly 

 with her mate. But she went through aU the motions so 

 charming to see when done in earnest. She settled her- 

 self in the crotch as though it were a nest. She tried it 

 this side and that, and she made great pretence of having 



