7*t RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Three R's—Rats, Rabbits, Robins 
A Hot Blast from a Victim 
If any one of the trio has any right 
to be ashamed of the company, it's the 
rat, for surely the rabbit and robin are 
the most contemptible pests that the 
fruit-grower has to contend with, and 
both protected by the law. The robin 
lias disgraced the song-bird class long 
enough; he lias no more right to be pro¬ 
tected than the English sparrow has. 
From an economic standpoint he is no 
good. Cherries, strawberries, raspber¬ 
ries, blackberries and angleworms make 
up four-fifths of his diet, lie possesses 
such a pure strain of cussed ,ss that he 
will not take the second bite out of a 
cherry; just one stab into the fruit— 
enough to ruin it—and on into the next. 
It is getting about impossible to get any 
cherries here, and there is absolutely no 
way to protect the crops from their rav¬ 
ages. When cherries are ripe or get¬ 
ting red, they work on them, at the 
break of day. about 3.45 to 4.30 A. M., 
and at sundown; also all day more or 
less. Ah-ha, methinks I hear the voice 
of a sentimentalist. Most likely it comes 
from the president of the city bird club, 
and she says: “Why, man, don't you 
know that the robin loves mulberries, 
and all you have to do to protect your 
cherry crop is to set out mulberry trees 
to produce mulberries for the robin to 
eat instead of cherries?” That’s an old 
chestnut, and there is nothing in it, and 
if there was anything in it. why should I 
be compelled to go to all .the expense 
and trouble and years of waiting, via 
the mulberry route, to get the protection 
to my property which I have a right to 
demand from the State? Before I set 
out my cherry trees I visited a cherry 
grower up north from here. As I drove 
along the road 1 noticed that he had his 
entire frontage, about one-third of a 
mile, set out with mulberry trees. They 
were about 18 to 20 years old, and looked 
very pretty along the roadside. He told 
me of his great hopes in setting the trees 
that the robins would leave the cherries 
alone: but. alas. they, eat the mulberries, 
but they also eat just as many cherries. 
Now what the farmer and fruit grower 
must do is to demand that the robin 
be put in the class with other pests and 
treated as a bad actor, and in his place, 
in the song-bird class, put the dearest of 
all, the bird which, from an economic 
standpoint, has no equal, the bird that 
lias been hunted, chased and dogged by 
the so-called sportsman til! today he is 
nearly extinct, and the only bird known 
that will eat the potato bug in its larva 
stage—Bob White. Any man. 1 care not 
what his name or position may be, that 
will kill a quail is in Theodore ltoose- 
velt’s "undesirable-citizen” class. Ldon’t 
suppose there are 2.000 quail in the 
northern counties in Pennsylvania, and 
still the law says to the sportsman, take 
your pump gun aud dog and go after 
them until you have the last one slaugh¬ 
tered. Would the farmer like to have 
this law changed so as to have the few 
remaining quail protected, so they can 
increase and help him in his continual 
warfare on the ever-increasing army of 
hugs and insects? If so, why doesn’t he 
stand up aud say so? 
Now as to the rabbit. Anyone that 
has set an apple orchard and brought it 
up to 10-year-old trees knows the a\v- 
lul destruction and damage they are 
capable of doing, especially if they have 
•cany Winters like the recent one. To¬ 
day (Sunday), with a temperature only 
tour degrees above zero, and s 3,)-mile 
wind blowing, 1 have been out with a 
bucket aud liaml-spray pump, in the snow 
to my hips, trying to save some very nice 
Opalescent trees that have just come into 
bearing. They are headed low. ami the 
*!> 
snow is from four to six feet de; 
around them, so that all the lower 
branches are buried. Last night b .my 
and his family went into the tops of some 
oi these trees and feasted on fruit buds; 
on the larger branches he just cleaned 
the fruit spurs right off the whole length 
ol them. In another night they would 
tone the whole row ruined, so here 1 am 
spraying them with a strong solution of 
mu' sulphur to save what 1 have worked 
liai'd for six years to bring to where 
'ey are. There is no protection against 
"’hole tree for this contemptible 
l»est. He will girdle the trunk until the 
snow gets too deep for that; then lie 
, | S ' ! ')P the limbs of its fruit spurs and 
ouds. J he loss this recent Winter to 
orchard owners will be hundreds yf thou¬ 
sands of dollars. It is pretty tough med- 
iriiie to take to get an orchard up to 
■ 1111 !..st hearing age and then lose all v.uir 
me. money ami hard work, more so 
1 ' llls fine than ever before a- it is 
to buy trees at any 
at the years to wait 
light to be waged all 
iestroyers of tlies. 
by the State. Ther 
almost impossible 
price. Then look 
and the same old 
® v ®r again The 
trees are piatccted 
why should not 
'lone? (>„ t 0 f 
h‘t the State 
Jdp' damage to 
truit growers. . 
so you 
trees 
rabbits V 
we do. 
farmer 
made 
I lie 
the 
my 
his 
State pa\ ,'ov damage 
hunters' • mouse fees 
t he fruit grower for 
trees. Farmers and 
o you want the law made 
i ‘V? t' a| d for the loss of your 
- v t, ' e damage lone by the State’s 
mt s stain, up and say so if 
i he time is right now for the 
t> lean and that the game laws are 
10 I'fotn t i;nr! favor him 
to feed the game Winter as well as 
Summer, and a more drastic law in re¬ 
gard to the yaps coming out fcom the 
cities in autos .with their high-powered 
guns and double-barreled dogs. and. lest 
I forget, they also have a number on 
their sleeves, which, they claim, is a li¬ 
cense from the State to tear down our 
stoue walls and cut our wire fences and 
tell us where to go when we order them 
off. If we want this different, "ue must 
do it ourselves. ’ 
A PENNSYLVANIA Fit LIT GROWER. 
[R. X.-Y.—The last is right, and wj 
are glad to see farmers realize it. Our 
friends tells the truth about these pests. 
Yet the robin has an army of friends 
who seem to feel about him just) as some 
women do about their boys. Everyone 
else knows the. boy is a fraud and a 
scamp, but to his mother he is an “angel 
child.” We regard the robin as a rob¬ 
ber. but when it comes to fighting him 
at law, you fiijd that he is “dear robin 
redbreast” to an army of people who 
never tried to raise a cherry.] 
New England Farmers Need Help 
In traveling through our New England 
farming section we see thousands of farm 
homes that are vacant; farms that are 
run down in a shameful manner. We ask 
the question—why? It is because we 
cannot get help; not only labor, but help 
from our banks. Why can’t the farmers 
of New England go into their banks and 
hire money the way the farmers do in the 
West? It is because we have not got the 
right men in the banks. A farmer in al¬ 
most any part of the West can go into 
the hanks aud borrow from $1,000 to 
$100,000. But if a farmer in New Eng¬ 
land should go into his home bank and 
ask (o hire any small sum less than 
;, .00 lie is criticized and turned down, 
i his is why the New England hanks are 
weak. In order for our New England 
farmers to ge onto their feet and produce 
more food, their bankers have got, to give 
them credit. It lias gotten so the aver¬ 
age farmer is afraid to go into a hank; 
afraid that he will be turned down; 
afraid that he will he looked down upon 
as a beggar; afraid with fear that his 
plans would not be understood in the 
bank. 
The New England farmer who testifies 
to this fear and timidity has told the 
truth. When the New England bankers 
will agree to do unto the farmers as they 
do unto the business men and town dwell¬ 
ers, there will be fewei farmers move to 
the city. Back up with credit any farm¬ 
ing prospect that looks sensible, just as 
you would the city business man. 
But the bankers will ask how they are 
to know if the farm will pay or not. That 
is where the New Englaud bauks made 
their mistake. Western bankers know. 
Why? Because the directors of the banks 
know as much about agriculture as the 
farmer himself. The time is near when 
the New England banks have got to lend 
some of their money to the farmer. But 
it will never come until the banker has 
more' knowledge of the farmer’s side. 
There is a hidden treasure in every farm 
in New England, and all we need is a lit¬ 
tle credit from our banks to dig it out. It 
is a well-known fact that New England’s 
agriculture has the best prospects iu all 
the country. It is also the cheapest land 
in the country, and the best markets right 
at our doors. Lend to the farmers of all 
New England the amount that the one 
State of Iowa alone has borrowed from 
the Federal Loan system, which is $24,- 
000.000. Then you will see us go over 
the top with production. M. A. SPRAGUE. 
Plymouth Co., Mass. 
Buffalo Live Stock 
755 
to all appearance, is progressing quite as 
satisfactorily as those in the beef-pro¬ 
ducing centers of Chicago aud further 
west. Erie County has for quite a long 
time paid much attention to the raising of 
Holstein cattle, and if Syracuse does not 
look out she will have a rival that needs 
looking after. So many of these cattle 
are now bred in the county that it is an 
easy matter to turn out a few hundred 
for a public auction, commonly held in 
the horse sales stables at the East Buf¬ 
falo stock yards. The president of the 
new club is Harry Yates, a capitalist 
who controls the big TTiion Iron Smelting 
Works in the city, owns the Lafayette 
Hotel, and sells a large amount of coal in 
the city. He has a large Holstein stock 
farm at Orchard Park, in the county, 
and, in facd, seems to he able to make 
about anything go that lie takes up. Other 
officers of the club are : Charles F Big¬ 
ler, vice-president; Philip Dold. secre¬ 
tary ; Dr. J. A. Hnghson, treasurer; these 
and George Mead and James O. Moore, 
executive committee. Mr. Bigler was ap¬ 
pointed delegate to the State advisory 
council. An effort is being made' to get 
the members of the club aud all Holstein 
breeders in the vicinity to attend the 
annual meeting of the National Ilolstein- 
h riesian Association at. St. Paul next 
June, for an effort to secure the meeting 
of 1021 in Buffalo. A publicity campaign 
is to be opened soon. Erie Countv, es¬ 
pecially the southern part of it. is es¬ 
pecially well adapted to the raising of 
dairy cattle, which succeed quite as well 
as either grain or fruit, and a strong or¬ 
ganization ought to bring this fact to the 
notice of many who are not yet turning 
their efforts in that direction. ' j. w. c, 
Erie Co., N. Y. 
Buffalo is bidding for a leading place 
as a dairy cattle breeder, as it has long 
held a similar place as a butchers’ stock 
center. On March 25 a meeting was held 
there by the local Holstein breeders and 
the Erie County Holstein Breeders’ Club 
was organized. The purpose of the club 
is to make Buffalo a central sales point 
for these cattle, and it includes the build¬ 
ing of a big pavilion and show depot at 
East Buffalo. It will be near the regu¬ 
lar beef stockyards, aud will act in con¬ 
cert with them so far as it is desirable. 
1’oi* t' vo or three years a fat-stock show 
has been given at East Buffalo, which. 
TriE fond parent was well-nigh dis¬ 
tracted with little Willie's questions and 
threatened to acquaint him with the slip¬ 
per if he did not keep quiet for a time. 
Willie was silent for nearly a minute, 
then said, reflectively : "Awful accident 
in the tube today.” Father looked up 
with luterest and asked what was the 
accident. Why,’ replied Willie, edging 
towiird the door, “a woman had her eye 
on a seat and a man sat on it ”—X**w 
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