5o6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 1, 
A A. .A. .A. JL .A. .A. .A.* 
Ruralisms ► 
v ”v ^ 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
Horticultural Nuisances. — We do 
not propose to discuss here the ordinary 
and obvious difficulties with which the 
gardener and fruit grower must always 
contend. Bugs, blights, diseases, the ex¬ 
actions of the transportation companies 
and the dishonesty of middlemen we have 
always with us, and they must be steadily 
opposed by all means within our power. 
Vicissitudes of weather and conditions of 
soil and climate are ever-present factors 
to be overcome by intelligent application, 
but there remain some wholly unnec¬ 
essary annoyances that should be elimi¬ 
nated, and will doubtless be when we 
reach a higher plane of civilization. Only 
a few can be mentioned. 
Fruit-eating Birds. —Nearly 1,000 spe¬ 
cies of birds have been observed in the 
continental limits of the United States, 
scarcely a dozen of which are harmful to 
the horticulturist. In the Eastern States 
the robin, catbird and cedar-bird or wax¬ 
wing are the only noticeably destructive 
kinds. 'I he robin leads all others in 
abundance, impudence and destructive 
powers. The story of the robin’s depre¬ 
dations on the Rural Grounds has been 
given in past numbers, and it is only nec¬ 
essary to say that the tiresome round of 
destruction of our choicest small fruits, 
beginning with half-grown cherries and' 
earliest strawberries, down the list to 
October grapes, has promptly begun. We 
grow an abundance of these fruits. There 
are outlying trees of cherries, Juneberries 
and mulberries, and perhaps one-quarter 
acre of abandoned strawberry beds filled 
with fruits, aside from our trial plot, yet 
in order to secure ripe and perfect ber¬ 
ries from the latter we must cover the 
plants with netting. 1 he early cherries 
all go. We have never had a ripe one, 
and the black grapes must be picked 
many days before real maturity. We 
prefer not to calculate losses on raspber¬ 
ries and other intermediate fruits. We 
are not allowed by law to kill these an¬ 
noying and useless birds, even in the act 
of fruit destruction but find that a little 
banging away of blank charges from a 
noisy gun has some deterrent effect, at 
least while one is about. The fruit grow¬ 
ers of New Jersey respectfully asked their 
lawmakers to amend the existing protective 
bird laws so that their crop—the crea¬ 
tion of their own industry—might be de¬ 
fended on their own lands, but this par¬ 
ticular Legislature, which was so corrupt 
that it adjourned in a panic at charges 
from the responsible mayor of a large 
city that it unduly favored certain great 
corporations, gleefully voted down this 
“Robin bill. New Jersey farmers and 
gardeners are not sufficiently organized to 
be feared at the polls. 
Maudlin Bird Talk. —The legislators, 
however, were not wholly to blame. At a 
hearing of this “Robin bill” a college 
professor testi to the inestimable value, 
from a theoretical standpoint, each pair 
of robins was to the farmer, somehow es¬ 
timated at $35 each year, and thousands 
of signatures were secured to petitions 
from school children, who did not clearly 
understand what they were signing, to 
the effect that the robin be spared from 
the deadly fruit grower. Unimpeachable 
investigators have shown that the most 
valuable “bird” to the gardener is the 
common toad. He dors eat injurious in¬ 
sects—lots of them—and he never injures 
anything of value to man. Happy is the 
trucker who has a flock of toads. The 
next in useful order for insect destroy¬ 
ing powers are domestic fowls, partic¬ 
ularly the turkey. A brood of common 
chicks will gather up more harmful in¬ 
sects than a township of robins, as when 
the robin is not eating fruits or berries 
he is preying on the indispensable earth¬ 
worm. There are grave objections to hens 
’ in the garden, but little chicks are all 
right. 
Long Live Bob White. —The most use¬ 
ful of wild birds'to the farmer, without 
doubt, is the Bob-White, known as Vir¬ 
ginia quail or partridge. He is known to 
destroy a greater variety of harmful in¬ 
sects, including occasionally the Potato 
beetle, than any other, together with mil¬ 
lions of weed seeds. He is graceful, 
cheerful and musical. He should be leg¬ 
ally taken from the class of gamebirds 
and forever protected. 
Rabbits. —A growing nuisance in this 
locality is the wild or gray native hare, 
so sedulously protected by law that it may 
only be hunted six weeks in the year, and 
not then when there is snow on the 
ground—the time of all others when the 
farmer boy is prepared to do full rabbit 
execution. These restrictions are entirely 
in the interest of city sportsmen and those 
who can afford to hunt with dogs. Rab¬ 
bits are becoming so numerous and confi¬ 
dent that thev appear almost domesticated 
about the Rural Grounds. They are daily 
seen in full play, and a glance from a 
window one recent morning showed five 
adults careering about the lawn. So great 
an area is planted with nursery products 
in our vicinity that no great damage has 
been done in rny special place until late¬ 
ly, when hybrid nut and fruit trees, two 
years planted, were wantonly cut down in 
midsummer, but the danger and annoy¬ 
ance is rapidly increasing. These rabbits 
are full-fed Summer and Winter; there is 
always abundance of clover and cabbage 
when not covered by deep snow, but they 
appear to be cultivating a taste for un¬ 
usual dainties. Thus we find a row of 
choice new Gladiolus seedlings or carna¬ 
tion novelties nibbled to rags, or a lot of 
young rose plants neatly cut off and 
bunny’s tracks plainly evident in the loose 
soil. One individual’s appetite has grown 
so bizarre that he delights in novelties 
among pepper plants, biting them off just 
above the ground. The rabbit is not a 
game animal—at best his flesh is poor 
eating, and he is notoriously destructive 
to fruit trees, cabbage ana turnip plants, 
as well as to the valuable oddities be finds 
on the Rural Grounds. When plentiful 
he is an intolerable nuisance, to be classed 
with other vermin, and merits no protec¬ 
tion from law—at least on the soil-tiller’s 
own grounds. 
Dogs. —Whether the dog has any place 
in progressive civilization or not is a de¬ 
batable question. Some dogs are naturally 
less objectionable than others, but each 
and every dog is a danger and annoyance 
when out of his master’s control. There 
are lonely places where a well-trained 
dog gives a feeling of protection, and 
there may be rare occasions in country 
life in which a faithful dog can really as¬ 
sist lus master, but the average dog kept 
by farmers is a useless and rather dis¬ 
gusting parasite, while the town or subur¬ 
ban dog is almost wholly without excep¬ 
tion a nuisance. As the home grounds of 
town dwellers are small and the neighbor¬ 
ing dog population numerous and excit¬ 
able the roaming habit is formed. Prop¬ 
erty is destroyed and lives endangered. 
A pack of midnight yelpers, in chase of 
cats or rabbits, goes crashing through the 
gardener’s sprouting vegetation with re¬ 
sults that are always easier to imagine 
than.describe. We have followed the crook¬ 
ed track of a lone cur through a 12-acre 
field to where he stepped on and stripped 
from the stock the only growing bud of a 
fruit novelty so scarce it could not be re¬ 
placed for a year. Our cucumber and 
melon plants were fiercely attacked by the 
Striped beetle, and an application of a 
particularly odorous brand of bone meal 
—our best preventive—was needed to 
drive them away. The beetles lied, but an 
assortment of dogs, stirred perhaps by 
dim memories of long-buried bones, held 
the following night a war dance on each 
particular hill. The little seedlings were 
not bettered by the performance. Not 
long ago a neighbor had a field of table 
corn nearly uprooted as the result of 
placing a fish under each hill for fertiliz¬ 
ing purposes. Tf any corn was spared it 
was because there were too many fishes 
for the united capacity of the vagrant 
dogs. The man who keeps his dogs at 
all times within his home boundaries is 
a good and safe citizen, but he who per¬ 
mits his canine pets to forage at large is 
never to be trusted in any real emergency, 
domestic or national. The first mentioned 
class of dog owners is most discouraginglv 
small. 
The Man With the Horse. —The 
horse is an indispensable animal—not to 
be displaced by bicycle, trolley or auto¬ 
mobile. As a working machine he is 
doubtless expensive and uncertain, but un¬ 
der intelligent management he can and 
does render invaluable service to man. 
trouble, horticulturally, is usually 
The 
with 
alent 
badly 
the driver, 
“singletree 
harnessed 
horses that has 
trees than even 
We know the all-prev- 
disease,” the result of 
and carelessly driven 
ruined more good fruit 
the dreadful San Jose 
scale. There is always danger to valuable 
vegetation when a horse is near, but com¬ 
petent management will reduce injuries to 
the minimum. Words rather fail, how¬ 
ever, in the case of the free and easy 
driver who comes, probably to consult you 
about some trivial affair of little interest 
save to himself, and ties his horse to a 
favorite tree or allows him to browse 
about a Rhododendron bed with the off- 
wheel among the brittle bushes. Custom 
and law does not allow us to deal with 
this offender as he deserves. As with the 
other nuisances, one must bear the losses 
as best he can, hoping that progressive 
civilization will modify his perceptions if 
not eliminate him, together with the 
birds, dogs and rabbits. w. v. f. 
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INSECTICIDE 
COMPANY 
Address nearest office: 
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