292 SCHOOL AND HOME GARDENING 



cultivated fields or other j^laces where it may travel easily. 

 They will destroy numerous cut-worms, army worms, cater- 

 pillars, moths, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles and other insects. 

 Estimates have been made that in thirty days a single toad 

 may destroy 720 cut-worms, 600 myriapods, 730 sow bugs, 

 1080 ants, 120 weevils, 120 beetles. (See Farmers' Bulletin 

 196.) Gardeners sometimes buy toads from collectors and 

 colonize them in their gardens. A shallow pool of stagnant 

 water is necessary during the spring breeding season if the 

 toads are to be allowed to multiply. The tadpoles live in the 

 water, and then develop into adults. Toads like to hide under 

 stones, and old boards which may be left to form mulches 

 around evergreens or other trees. 



Birds. — 'Some birds are far more beneficial than others. 

 We consider the insect eaters as the most helpful because they 

 destroy such gTeat numbers of insects either in the larva stage 

 or in other stages. The seed-eating birds, however, are also 

 beneficial because they destroy great numbers of weed seeds, 

 and they often feed their young upon insects during the nesting 

 season. Gardeners and others should protect the birds and 

 encourage them to build their nests near the garden. Groups 

 of shrubbery will attract some of them. Others will use 

 boxes and bird houses put up for them. Attractive fruits, 

 such as a Eussian mulberry, a spice bush, wolfberry, barberry, 

 hawthorne, wild cherry and others may be planted to help 

 retain the birds more months in the year. By all means we 

 should not allow hunters and marauders to kill or to frighten 

 the birds away. 



