THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



waitinjr patientlv for six \\•'c■el^5, 

 1 knocked out the plujjs and reliU 

 ed ni' aj^ain hotli stinnivs. From 

 the time of rolillini; to the prosciit 

 dav is live and a half weeks, or in 

 all elevt-n and a half weeks, usiajj 

 in Kill 2', n-allons of acids on the 

 two stumps, and the only diftir- 

 ence in them is what I pulled out 

 with the ausj^er. Ilavinjj jjiven the 

 atn-ds a first-class trial, I have to 

 turn round attain and use what I 

 have l>e<'n nsin}^ for the last five 

 and a half vears, <;~eliji-nite, and it 

 will 1)e a hard joli to find its sii- 

 perior. I find throujifhout the 

 State that farmers in several dis- 

 tricts have started clo<iriu,sj by this 

 method, and in every instance it 

 has heen discarded in favour of 

 more reliable and quicker me- 

 thods. 



^ 



Unmotherly Ewes. 



WTien other things fail with the 

 ewe which persists in disownintj 

 her own proe-env try the ■dofC, says 

 The Farmers' Advocate. All doj^s 

 are not safe for this work, but if 

 the do"' is accustomed to drivincr 

 or beinjif around the sheep, nnJ 

 thev are accustom'ed to him, he 

 will not be likely to injure them. 

 Of course, the attendant must 

 watch proceedinjTs, as it would be 

 follv to ruin a g^ood sheep or a 

 g'ood dog-. Place the ew'e and her 

 lamb or lambs in a box-stall by 

 themselves and take the dog in. 

 Usually the ewe will obiect to the 

 dog's presence, and Avill seek to 

 .shield the lambs. If so, this is 

 all that is necessary. If she does 

 not, set the dog on her gently. 

 Do not allovsf or encourage him 

 to bite her, and generally she will 

 own the lambs immediately, and 

 will .seek to expel the dog from 

 the stall. This is not an infallible 

 cure, but where other means fail 

 is well worth trying. It requires 

 care, but w'hen it works- is a quick 

 and efficient remedy. In milder 

 cases, especially with young ewes, 

 very often all that is necessary is 

 to place the ewe and her .charge 

 in a rien ^by themselves imtil she 

 becomes acnnainted with and in- 

 terested in her offsDring, and the 

 troiible ceases. — Klder's Re\'iew. 



^> 



In 1875 an attempt was made to 

 introduce the Humble Bee as a 

 medium for fertilizing red clover 

 in New Zealand. The first at- 

 tempt failed, but another, made in 

 1884, proved more successful. 

 These were followed by other con- 

 signments, with the result that 

 clover seed was added to the pro- 

 ducts of the country, bringing 

 many thonsands of pounds annual- 

 ly into the farmers' pockets. 



Ths Economic Value of 

 our Birds. 



Bv I*rofessor F. Rras^nus Wilson, 

 R.A.O.U. 



It is a \vell-know!i fact- that Aus- 

 tralia loses hundreds of thousands 

 of pounds annually owing to the 

 ravages of insect i)ests. These crea- 

 tures attack our orchards, our 

 cornfields, owt fdrest reserves, and 

 our pastoral areas, and for twen- 

 ty-four honrs out of every day are 

 waging a deadly warfare against 

 ns. A competent judge calculated 

 that ( the j^arly loss to the 

 United States, owing to damage 

 caused by insects, amotvnted to 

 £160,000,000 sterling. 



In our papers we read of enor- 

 mous plagties of locusts, of hordes 

 of " take all " grubs devastating 

 our grazing lands, of apple crops 

 being- ruined by the codlin moth, 

 of valuable stock being killed by 

 bot flies, and of the many other 

 misfortunes that assail our pri- 

 mary producers, and are caused 

 bv insects pests. . 



Every ^^ear thousands of poimds 

 are expended throuo^hout the Com- 

 monwealth in buying costly ma- 

 chinery for spraying, etc., and vast 

 quantities of poison are spread in 

 an often futile attempt to keep in 

 check this irrowing menace. Bead- 

 Iv maladies are carrie'd about by 

 the myriads of mosquitoes and flies 

 that abound everywhere, while in 

 some localities life is rnade al- 

 most unbearable ow^ng to their 

 presence. ^ 



Now Australia is extremely for- 

 tunate in that the majority of its 

 birds live almost entirely upon an 

 insect diet. 



.A.n insectivorous bird is by far 

 the best weapon in creation with 

 which to assail the insect world, 

 both on account of the enormous 

 quantity that it can despatch and 

 also from the fact that it requires 

 no i-avinent for services rendered. 

 All i't asks for is the right of exis- 

 tence, and yet in a thousrhtless 

 and foolhardy manner we kill our 

 birds which in reality are worth 

 their w^eiirht in gold. 



Mr. D. Le Souef, the well-known 

 Director of the Melbourne Zoologi- 

 cal gardens, some v'^ears ago visit- 

 ed an enormoxis rookery of the 

 straw-necked ibis in the Riverina, 

 and in an article published in the 

 " Victorian Naturalist " he tells 

 us that the birds in this rookery 

 would, at a conservative estimate, 

 num.ber at least 240,000, 



— Fair Crluttons. — 



• 



He procured n few specimens, 

 and found that the stomach of 

 each contained about 2,000 imma- 

 ture [fras.shoppers. A .simple cal- 

 culation will show that this vast 

 flock would account for 480,000,000 

 grasshop])ers per diem. Yet, in 

 face of this, people visit the breed- 

 ing haunts of the birds and collect 

 their eggs by the cart load. One 

 )>arty last year, having gathered 

 more than it required, drove away 

 and left about 4,800 eggs to rot 

 on the banks of the swamps. In 

 Egypt in olden days the ibis was 

 held to he sacred and was not 

 molested in any way, and it is 

 regrettable that it should not be 

 so at the present time, as surely 

 no bird is more worthy of venera- 

 tion. 



— Tiny Friends. — 



The little tomtits and wrens that 

 are so busy in your garden, search- 

 ing almost everywhere amongst 

 the plants, consume at least their 

 own weight of insects every day, 

 yet we permit our children to des- 

 troy them with their shanghais, 

 and our woulld-be sportmen fire 

 charfT'CS from a i2-bore shotgun 

 at them. 



The black and white fantail or 

 wilHe wagtail, as it is perhaps 

 more commonly known, is an ex- 

 ceotionallv useful bird, and, being 

 of a confiding nature, performs 

 good deeds even at your very door- 

 step, capturinrr hosts of flies and 

 ■ mosquitoes, and from time to time 

 enlivenina- vou with dulcet notes, 

 " Sweet pretty creature." A near 

 relation, the white. shafted fantail, 

 is another bird adept in the art 

 of catchine flyin«- insects, and, al- 

 though so small of stature, is a 

 monument of usefulness. 



Then, again, take our cuckoos, 

 of which there are six kinds in 

 Victoria, and consider the items of 

 their menu. They are practically 

 the only birds known to take and 

 devour the familiar hairy caterpil- 

 lars, and are, therefore, our only 

 means of natural defence against 

 these nests ; also, thev are very 

 fond of the vine moth caterpillars; 

 pnd a naturalist has removed from 

 the stomach of a pallid cuckoo 

 eifrhteen of these, each of which 

 was about 2lim. in length. 



— The Stinsr of the Bull Ant. — 



One of the best known and per- 

 haps most beneficial of our birds 

 is the harmonious shrike thrush, 

 that .silvery. throated songster that 

 we aU love to hear. Apart from 

 its ordinary insect-eating procli\n- 

 ties, it should commend itself es- 

 pecially to campers, as it includes 



