Alabama, 1918. 73 



the worst weeds in the United States. The 80 painted buntings 

 made over two-thirds (precisely 67.03 per cent) of their total food 

 of its seeds. The seeds of other grasses composed 5.88 per cent of 

 the food, grasses alone thus furnishing over nine-tenths of the vege- 

 table portion. The other vegetable matter eaten consists largely of 

 seeds of such weeds as amaranth, mallow, sorrel, and nail grass. 



To sum up, practically all of the vegetable food of the painted 

 bunting is of weed seeds, two-thirds of it being the seeds of foxtail 

 grass, one of the worst weed pests. The animal food also is com- 

 posed almost exclusively of injurious species, more than a fourth of 

 it consisting of the two greatest pests of the cotton crop — the cotton 

 worm and the boll weevil. — W. L. M. in Farmers' Bulletin. 



% 



AUTUMN 



THY hair soft lifted by the winnowing wind, 

 Or, on a half reaped furrow sound asleep. 

 Drowsed with the fumes of poppies, while thy hook 

 Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers ; 

 And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 

 Steady that laden head across a brook. 

 Or by a cider press with patient look 

 Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours. 

 Where are the songs of spring. Aye, where are they? 

 Think not of them ; thou hast thy music, too, 

 While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day. 

 And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue ; 

 Then in a willful choir the small gnats mourn 

 Among the river shallows borne aloft 

 Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies ; 

 And full grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn. 

 Hedge crickets sing and now with treble soft 

 The redbreast whistles from a garden croft, 

 And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. 



— John Keats. 



