§oc\etx) for t§e protection of 'gSir&s. —No. 6. 
A FRUIT-G ROWER ON BIRDS. 
To the Editor of the “Newcastle Weekly Chronicle.” 
Red Rose Vineries, Chester-le-Street. 
Sir, —Your much appreciated kindness in drawing atten¬ 
tion to my friendship towards birds demands that I should 
justify such friendship. Of that class of people, forming so large 
a portion of our population,, who never bestir themselves save 
when their interests are attacked, birds have much reason to 
complain. With them a bird’s existence is ignored, save during 
the short period of the year when, undoubtedly, they do con¬ 
sume somewhat of that which is of more or less value. It was 
my fortune to be reared in a school where birds certainly were 
not regarded as friends. My father, a market gardener, en¬ 
couraged me to destroy every nest that I found. And it was 
possessed with much the same feeling that after being engaged 
in other pursuits for 30 years I returned to the calling of my 
childhood, and also commenced growing fruit under glass. I 
soon discovered that insects were seriously destructive, both 
inside and outside, and believing that a good sharp frost would 
rid us of the latter, I longed for a good hard winter. The 
following we had 39 degrees of frost, or 7 below zero. Even 
fruit trees of some varieties were killed, and as for birds, in some 
places they were all but extinguished. From this period, sixteen 
years ago, you may date my becoming a close student of the 
habits of birds, as, with the thrush tribe all but annihilated, the 
following summer snails were a scourge, gooseberry bushes 
were stripped by innumerable caterpillars, and all trees that 
had been injured by the-frost had their sickly foliage propor¬ 
tionately devoured by the red spider. 
Parent birds seek for their brood the best procurable food, 
but they will not fly half-a-mile for it, if they can get it near 
at hand, and as a dog will eat grass for its good, so will they 
devour green food if within their reach. For the protection of 
my one and a half acres of trees and fruit bushes, situate some 
600 yards from the town, I have within the vinery walls about 
25 pairs of sparrows, and my gooseberry bushes are never 
touched. As for sparrows eating the blooms, I have as yet 
only heard of the performance. These are stern unattackable 
facts. During the first year after the serious frost previously 
referred to, I dusted my bushes with hellebore powder. Amid 
the shoals of dead caterpillars that lay under every bush, I 
discovered several dead sparrows which had evidently been 
killed by eating the poisoned pests, and so I had it proved con¬ 
clusively that they did eat the gooseberry caterpillar. 
Birds that are fed on the premises, and that live and feed ■ 
amongst the trees, search for and attack the larvae of 
grub at every stage of their existence. I attribute much to 
having birds bred and always near where you want them, for 
such never attack buds ravenously, as do town-bred birds, the 
latter not being able, so situated, to secure the green food neces¬ 
sary for their health. With gooseberry bushes near a stack yard 
you will probably find, especially during a snowstorm, that the 
want of green food has compelled the birds to eat the buds. Also 
in early spring in the neighbourhood of large towns, the conditions 
being similar, everything that is green will be sought for. Like¬ 
wise when gardens are surrounded by woods it is only by a liberal 
use of nets that any reasonable portion of the fruit can be 
saved ; as swarms of blackbirds and thrushes in such situations 
will eat every fruit as it ripens. I provide nesting places, and 
thus have birds so near my caterpillars and so far away from 
house morsels, that they eat the pest greedily; but fruit crops 
being thereby secured, we must next draw on our ingenuity to 
prevent the birds taking more than their fair tithe. 
