The Fik. 



and they watch their appearance with an assiduity beyond 

 behef. No eye is Hke that of a bird; otherwise^ how does 

 a pigeon, that is actually up in the clouds, discover grain 

 scattered upon the earth? The finches from the neigh- 

 bouring trees, or, if there be no trees, by flying over the 

 garden, ascertain all that is going forward. You cannot 

 protect yourself by mats ; because the seeds, if they came 

 np imder the mats, would be so weak as to perish. If you 

 put the mats on by day, and take them off by night, the 

 birds will be on the beds and have finished their work in 

 the morning before you can get a human being to the spot. 

 Glass is out of the question in such a case; and therefore 

 you must have nets, the meshes of which are too small 

 for a finch to get its head through. These nets must 

 be put over rods bent in a semicircular form across the 

 beds, with other rods tied upon them long- ways, so that 

 the bed will have a covering resembling the tilt of a wag- 

 gon. Then you must take care that the lower edges of 

 the net be pinned down closely to the ground, all the way 

 along on both sides; so that there be not a single hole left, 

 at which a bird can creep in. Besides the birds, there are 

 the mice, equally fond of these seeds. They get at them 

 even before they break the ground. They set nets at defi- 

 ance ; and whereas the others work by day, these gentry 

 work by night. Traps, poison, all sorts of means, but live- 

 traps baited with cheese, particularly, you must resort to, 

 especially if you be near a shrubbery, or a grass-ground, or 

 any place that harbours the mice. Without these precau- 

 tions, it is perfectly useless to sow the seed. I had some 

 beds last summer, of both Pine and Spruce. I have pro- 

 bably fifty thousand plants ; and 1 am perfectly convinced 

 that if I had left the beds wholly uncovered, and had 

 made use of no mean to destroy the mice, I should not 

 have had one single 'plant. As it was, I lost much more 



