The Hui?î??iing Bird. 49 



" It was then dragged to the ant's quarters. If the attack 

 was made by the small red ants, two usually took the work. 

 One made the attack, but would soon require assistance. 

 Sometimes the ant would go away and seek help, and upon 

 returning" could find no worm, and thus the worm would 

 escape." 



The question is an important one to fruit growers, 

 especially as since the unjustifiable and wanton destruction 

 of birds by farmers, the ravages of insects pests during the 

 past few years have increased in the most alarming manner. If 

 the ant can be utilized in the manner we suggest, there will 

 be no need for the introduction of poisonous solutions into 

 English orchards. — Horticultural Times. 



BANANA CULTURE. 



The banana, we learn from a United States official Report, 

 is so popular a fruit in that country, that during August and 

 September seventy-eight thousand tons were imported, while, 

 on the other hand, its culture is extending with such rapidity, 

 that before long the entire home demand will be met by 

 Florida, Mississippi, and other suitable areas of the Republic. 

 If true — which we doubt — this will not be good news for the 

 grape dealers whose wares it is displacing, or for our West 

 India Colonies from which the supplies of this wholesome 

 fruit are at present obtained. Nor is it altogether for the 

 benefit of the United States ; for when the lazy negro learns 

 that with the minimum of labour the maximum of food can be 

 grown on a mere patch of ground, it will be vain to expect 

 him to toil at such uncertain crops as cotton or tobacco, far 

 less at "raising" wheat which is saleable in Liverpool for 

 thirty shillings the quarter, and in the land where it is grown 

 brings a great deal less. All he has to do is to betake him- 

 self to the hot, steaming country on the Lower Mississippi, 

 plant a banana patch, and return to a state of pristine savagery. 

 In short, the introduction of the banana is destined to do as 

 much harm in the old slave lands as the introduction of the 

 potato did in Ireland — an easily reared food plant, highly con- 

 ducive to early marriages, large families, and all abounding 

 sloth. 



But the banana — and under this head we include the 

 plantain, which is reallv only one of many varieties — has 

 infinitely greater possibilities than the potato. It is, in the 



