V,.] 



DISEASES OF FRUIT-TREES. 



217 



once ; for, if the maggot remain, it will destroy the whole. We 

 very often see whole bunches of blossoms, leaves and all, shrivel 

 up suddenly : the maggot has done this, and is gone before you 

 perceived the mischief. The whole of standard-trees are fre- 

 quently nearly stripped in this way : people call it blight ; but, in 

 general, appear to know nothing of the cause. 



296. BIRDS. — The way to keep birds from fruit, and, indeed, 

 from everything else, is to shoot them, or frighten them away, or 

 cover over effectually with nets the object which they covet. I 

 have spoken occasionally of the care to be taken in this respect ; 

 but, in all cases, where birds are very fond of the thing you have, 

 you must keep them away or give up the cultivation of the thing ; 

 for it is time and labour thrown away to raise things and then let 

 them be destroyed in this manner. There is one season when to de- 

 fend yourself is very difficult ; I mean the spring, when the birds 

 attack the huds. There are certain buds which the sparrows will 

 destroy, just when they are sending out their fruit : but the great 

 enemies of buds are the bulfinches, the chaffinches, and, above all, 

 the greenfinches, which assail the buds of plums of all sorts in a 

 most furious manner. They are hard driven for food at this time 

 of the year ; and they will accutally strip whole blanches. It is, 

 however, contended, by some persons, that, after all, they do no 

 harm ; for that there are insects in the bud which they eat ; and 

 that it is not the herbage that they want, but the animal, seeing 

 that birds live upon grain, and pulse, and insects, and not upon 

 green things. This is by no means true : they do live upon green 

 things, or at least they eat them, as we see fowls eating grass, during 

 a great part of every day. I believe that these little birds eat the 

 buds, and are not at all looking after insects. The wild pigeons 

 i;i America live, for about a month, entirely upon the buds of the 

 sugar maple, and are killed by hundreds of thousands, by persons 

 who errect bough-houses, and remain in a maple wood with guns 

 and powder and shot, for that purpose. If we open the craw of 

 one of these little birds, we find in it green stuff of various 

 descriptions, and, generally, more or less of grass, and therefore it is 

 a little too much to believe that, in taking away our buds, they 

 merely relieve us from the insects that would, in time, eat us up. 

 To keep birds from buds is a difficult matter. You cannot net all 

 your trees ; nor can you fire with shot among your trees without 

 doing a greater harm than that which you wish to prevent. Birds 



