SERVANTS OF THE SOIL 
203 
plants of their foes. Man is ignorant of the wise provisions of 
Nature simply from want of observation. He attributes the 
injuries that his plum-trees have suffered to the sparrows, and 
so he wages a merciless war upon the little birds that are really 
the protectors of his fruit. It is related of a village in Kent 
that prizes were given for the heads of sparrows, titmice, and 
other birds which feed almost exclusively on what the farmer 
terms “ blight.” In 1858 the plum-trees in that locality 
promised an abundant crop, but long ere the fruit was matured 
the larvae of the winter-moth, upon which the birds, especially 
titmice, feed, settled on the trees and consumed almost the entire 
crop. Had the counteracting influence not been removed this 
calamity had not befallen the gardener. “ Knowledge is power,” 
and can only come through study. Ignorance too often brings 
trouble and sorrow to man. 
The crow and the rook are also much persecuted, yet they 
rid the farmer of the evils that affect his crops. In the stomachs 
of crows shot by the farmer have been found nothing but a 
large number of caterpillars, the true destroyers of the wheat. 
Rooks, too, have been found to consume only grubs, a few earth- 
worms, and wireworms, the greatest pest of the field. 
Some years ago there was such an enormous quantity of 
caterpillars upon Skiddaw that they devoured all the vegetation 
on the mountain, and the farmers were apprehensive they 
would destroy their crops. The rooks, however, discovered the 
caterpillars and soon put an end to their ravages. 
Bishop Stanley expresses the opinion that there is no more 
useful race of birds than the owls, since, with a few exceptions, 
their food consists entirely of vermin and insects very injurious 
to the crops. Near Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, some years 
ago, such numbers of mice over-ran the country as to destroy 
a large portion of the vegetation, and had it not been for a 
providential assemblage of owls which came from all parts to 
prey upon the mice, serious destruction to the crops might have 
occurred. 
The common toad is frequently made a martyr of the garden 
by ignorant persons. It is innocuous and by no means to 
be loathed and despised, as it destroys and clears away worms 
and other small vermin which, if allowed to live, would be 
harmful to the garden. 
Trees, too, have their attendants in the world of Nature. 
The pretty woodpecker, running like a mouse up the brown 
trunks, and making the wood resound with his hammer-like 
taps, claims the rambler’s attention. Nature guides him to 
the unsound tree. He never attacks one that is sound. A 
visit to a sound tree is perhaps made when he is doubtful, but 
a tap or two convinces him that he must seek his food elsewhere. 
Instead of shooting him, the woodman should protect him, as 
