Mat I.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
75 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
OUR VILLAGERS. 
By the Authoress of “ My Flowers," Sc. 
One very fruitful cause of evil among the lower orders in 
the rural districts, is the custom of Sabbath 1 bird-keeping.’ 
I am sorry to say the higher classes are equally to blame in 
this matter, because they employ children for this purpose; 
and whether we do a wrong thing ourselves, or cause it to 
be done by others, the guilt is the same. At particular 
seasons of the year, when the grain is first sown, and when 
it is ripening in the ear, boys are set to drive away rooks 
and other birds which infest the fields, which is all very 
right during the week, but unhappily no difference is made 
on the Sabbath day, the same noise and uproar is continued, 
and during these times of the year, the poor little children 
are suffered to desecrate the Lord’s day, and receive pay for 
doing so. 
I am quite aware that we may generalize too much in our 
remarks upon habits and customs. We may erroneously 
imagine that other localities pursue the same systems that 
are carried on in our own vicinity; and I am willing to hope 
that in most neighbourhoods this practice is not resorted to. 
Still, as I see it so constantly before my eyes, and know it to 
be the case in the surrounding districts, I cannot forbear 
bringing it before the attention of the cottage gardeners, in 
the hope that where it may now prevail, it will be hereafter 
discouraged; for it is full of evil and cannot be too steadily 
opposed. Sabbath bird-keeping is Sabbath breaking. We 
are told to “train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old he will not depart from it.” Alas! if 
children are trained in the way they should not go, they are 
f still more obedient to the guiding hand, because the 
natural heart delights in sin, and the feet hasten gladly 
along its broad, inviting road. When a parent allows his 
' child to turn lii3 back upon Sabbath duties, upon the public 
worship and service of God, and upon His strongly enforced 
I command, “ Remember," to keep it holy; when he allows his 
! child to disregard the “pearl of days,” and spend it in 
wandering about the fields, screaming at birds, rattling 
marbles in a tin can, or firing a gun continually to protect 
the grain, he is giving that child a terrible lesson in sin. 
He is teaching him to disobey the commands of God, and 
handing him over to depravity and ruin. He is laying the 
first stone of a prison, if not planning the first beam of a 
gibbet. 
The unhappy victims of madness and folly, who reaped 
the reward of their outbreak in the year 1830, by transporta¬ 
tion in many cases, and by death in some; those, I mean, 
: belonging to our own neighbourhood, solemnly expressed 
themselves upon the subject of Sabbath breaking; declaring 
I that it was the first step in their career of crime; and they 
implored the clergyman of their own parish, who visited 
them in prison, to convey a charge to their families and 
fellow-parishioners, “ to keep holy the Sabbath day.” How 
many of these poor men had been brought up to ‘ keep birds ’ 
on the Sabbath, I cannot tell; but disregard of that day was 
confessed by them all to be the beginning of their troubles. 
The dying words of one of their former cympanions, and 
the parting exhortation of many others, were delivered with 
much solemnity from the pulpit to a listening congregation. 
It made a deep impression at the time, but I fear it has 
passed away, for many are still treading the same devious 
way. 
It is a very sad and painful thing to see, on the way to 
church, when the hells are chiming, and the congregation 
are gathering from all points, little boys sitting under hedges, 
or loitering about the fields, screaming half their time, and 
playing at marbles or getting into mischief the remainder; 
in their working clothes, uncared for, and taking no part in , 
the sacred duties of the day. The master who pays them, 
and the parents who sell them, are going contentedly to 
church, never considering that the souls committed to their 
charge will be required at their hands; but quite satisfied 
that the rooks must he driven away on Sundays as well as 
on working days, and, therefore, that the Bible precepts are 
not intended to interfere with wdiat must, be dqne. Is.not 
much evil that takes place in a parish to be traced to such 
opinions and such practises as these? How can a parent 
chastise for faults towards himself, when he teaches his 
child to transgress the commands of a heavenly Parent? 
How can a master expect faithful service, when he hires his 
neighbour to rebel against his Master in heaven ? 
A few months ago, two idle boys brought up in neglect 
and sin, went out to poach ; they meant only to catch a few 
rabbits, as thej r said, and, perhaps, as they thought; but one 
step leads easily to another, as they found to their cost. 
They were going to take what was not their own, and 
whether that thing was a rabbit or a sheep, the theft in the 
sight of God is equal. There is no little sin. The boys 
were unable to catch any rabbits, therefore, they determined 
to rob a hen-roost belonging to a neighbouring farm; and 
succeeded under the cover of night. Dread of detection 
induced them to leave the parish; so one of the lads stole 
two sovereigns from his own mother, and absconded with his 
companion, and a deadly weight of guilt on his head. 
The robbery was quickly traced to the two boys, whose 
habits were v r ell known, and whose disappearance raised the 
first suspicion. They were pursued and taken; and are at 
this time still suffering hard labour in the county jail. I saw 
them returning from an examination before their committal, 
in the hands of the constables, with a group of boys 
following them, and people standing at their doors to see 
them go by. What a sight for their pai’ents—for every parent! 
How it must have gone to the hearts of those who had 
spared the rod—who had not laboured and prayed for the 
souls of their children—who could not feel that the sin laid 
not at their own door! And what a lesson to those who 
allow their little ones to run riot, to forsake the guide of 
their youth, to follow their own little headstrong wills, and 
dishonour God and His righteous law! above all who for 
the lucre of gain, peril the eternal happiness of those whom 
God has given them. 
Let us strive to honour our Maker and Redeemer in all 
we do; and let us strive to teach those who are coming after 
us to do so too. Our fields will stand quite as thick with 
corn, when we send our little bird-keepers to church and 
school, as they do now; and orchards and gardens will be 
far more safe, with an overflowing church and quiet Sabbath, 
than when our children are taught to despise the commands 
of the Lord, and grow up in ignorance and sin. A little 
plough-boy, whose week days are spent in honest toil, may 
learn on the Sabbath enough to guide him on his heavenly 
way, and keep him from the “ fowler’s ” snare. What is the j 
value of a measure of wheat compared with our neighbour’s 
soul? A special blessing is promised to those “who turn 
away their feet from doing their own pleasure on” God’s 
“holy day;” they shall “ride on the high places of the 
earth,” and be fed “with the heritage of Jacob, for the | 
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Let us even in what 
we may think trifles, remember and obey this word. 
HISTORY OF AN APIARY. 
In my two last communications, I entertained your | 
readers with an account of the method pursued by me last j 
summer, in forming artificially several prime swarms. I 1 
have now to explain the after treatment of the old lnves. ! 
And first as to my own stock:—Exactly 10 days after the i 
issue of the prime swarm (viz., the 30th of May), all the ’ 
bees which during this time had been hatched in the hive, 
were driven, or swept out of it (as many as could not be 
driven), into an empty bell-hive in the usual manner; this i 
done, several of the freshest looking combs (some con¬ 
taining brood left by the old mother, but no eggs or grubs j 
deposited by the young queen) were taken from it, and | 
adjusted in the hive* destined for the reception of the 
swarm, each comb being carefully affixed to its bar. The 
bees were then compelled to enter it, and the hive placed i 
* One of Mr. Goldings, 11 inches wide by 9 inches high. 
