August 7. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
339 
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tribes; calculates the saving to be derived from joining j 
i in his wanton fun; and, like many others who only argue j 
I from appearances, makes erroneous calculations of the 
| amount of grain destroyed by these much calumniated 
j creatures. 
From the tone of his remarks, it is evident it will be 
useless to attempt to reason with him on the absurdity ol' 
Iris proposition, but in the hope of deterring others from 
following his example, and thereby reducing our crops and 
raising the price of our already too dear food, I beg to be 
allowed to draw attention to a few statements of the effects 
of destroying birds. By destructive birds, I conclude he 
means rooks, pigeons, sparrows, and bullfinches, which are 
the birds most spoken against by farmers and gardeners. 
In the Duchy of Nassau, the peasants and landowners 
complained sadly and wofully of a rookery ; so clamorous 
did they become, that orders were given for the destruction 
of the birds, ancl they were soon all but exterminated; but 
mark the sequel, the cockchafers increased so rapidly that 
their grubs destroyed the crops, and those who had de¬ 
nounced the rooks now begged that they might be protected 
and multiplied. 
In a department of the south of France, where many 
dovecots were kept, mostly by persons who had little or no 
land, great complaints were made respecting the damage 
done by the pigeons to the crops, and the dovecots were 
suppressed ; but though the pigeons eat corn when they can 
get it, yet three-fourths of the year it is not to be found, 
and they then subsist on the seeds of weeds. After the 
destruction of the pigeons the weeds increased so fast that 
the farmers could not keep the crops clean, and their losses 
were greater than at first, so that they were glad to have the 
Pigeons back, and passed stricter laws for their protection. 
Most persons are acquainted with the result of the 
destruction of sparrows in one of the wheat-growing pro¬ 
vinces of the Baltic, and where it was afterwards found 
advisable to import sparrows to replace them in keeping in 
check the insect pests. A gentleman farmer in East Kent, 
a notorious betting man, and great landed proprietor, laid 
a wager of one thousand pounds he would destroy every 
sparrow in his parish in a given time ; he had most difficulty 
in killing an old cock sparrow, who could scarcely' fly r , but 
hopped cunningly about his pigsties; he, however, succeeded 
the night before the time expired, and he won his bet; but 
he lost double and treble the succeeding years by the damage 
done to his crops by insects. 
Bullfinches are accused of pecking the buds off fruit-trees, 
which is substantially correct; but though I have for several 
years watched the results, they have always proved more 
advantageous than otherwise. The first time I took notice, 
I was living at a farm-house in Sussex. In the winter, the 
bullfinches came in flocks, and devoured every bud from the 
plum, cherry, and gooseberry trees; the snow below the 
trees and bushes was covered with the bud-cases, and not a 
perfect bud could I discover on the trees. I was dumb ; my 
pet bullfinches! I was compelled to admit them destructive; 
but mark, the trees and bushes blossomed well, and we had 
excellent crops of fruit on those very trees that the bull¬ 
finches had stripped. The next winter the bullfinches rarely 
ever came near, though I watched anxiously for them ; the 
trees blossomed that year even better than the previous one, 
but we had scarcely any fruit. 
My present neighbour has a small patch of Gooseberry 
trees ; in 1853 he had but little fruit; in the winter I found 
him waging a war of extermination against the bullfinches. 
I told him I did not believe they did any injury; he was 
quite angry, showed me his poor gooseberry bushes stripped 
of every bud; but that spring he had an excellent crop. I 
pointed to them, and asked what harm the bullfinches had 
done ; he replied, he would not kill any more bullfinches. 
Chaffinches, too, in early spring, pull up and destroy 
many of the young peas, radishes, and cabbage, while in 
the seed-leaves; but if gardeners would only consider the 
immense amount of good they do throughout the summer 
in destroying caterpillars, they would guard their young seeds 
from the birds, and not destroy the birds.—B. P. Brent. 
THE WATER LILY. 
The Nymphrea, or Water Lily, has always been a great 
favourite in China. It is commonly called lien-lioa, and 
has rounded leaves, scolloped at the edges, and is fleshy, 
full of veins, and sloping to the middle; some swim on the 
surface of the water, others rise above it to different heights. 
They are of a tender green on the upper surface, rather 
darker underneath, and supported by long stalks spotted 
, with black. The root of the Water Lily is long lived, it is 
as thick as your arm, and sometimes as much as twelve feet 
i or fifteen feet long. The colour is pale yellow outside, and 
milk-white within; and itlies along the bottom of the water, 
1 or attaches itself to the clay by bunches of fibres, which 
! spring out at various distances along it. From the middle 
; of these fibres it sometimes sends out shoots which increase 
its growth, but it commonly grows at the tv r o ends. The 
stalks of both leaves and flowers are pierced quite to the 
extremity by holes rounded like, those of the root, and 
symmetrically arranged along them. 
The flowers of the Water Lily have numerous petals, 
disposed in such a manner that when they are not com¬ 
pletely open you might take them for large Tulips; after¬ 
wards they expand with a Bose-like form. In the middle of 
the flower is a large conical pistil, which becomes a rounded, 
spongy fruit, divided throughout its length into cells full of 
oblong seeds, enveloped in a kind of shell like the acorn, | 
and composed, like it, of tw r o white lobes, between which is 
the germ. The stamens are very delicate filaments termi¬ 
nating in violet coloured anthers. 
The Chinese distinguish four kinds of Water Lily,—the 
yellow', the white, the red, and the pink; the three latter 
sometimes with single flowers, sometimes with double. This 
plant may be propagated by seeds, but more easily and 
rapidly by roots; it does not require any kind of culture, and 
there is nothing comparable to the effect produced by this 
splendid flower on the ponds and basins of China. It does 
not bud till towards the end of May, but its germination is 
very rapid, and its great leaves lying on the surface of the 
water, or raised majestically to various heights, form a 
covering of most exquisite verdure, the beauty of which is, 
of course, enhanced, w'hen it is enamelled with flowers of 
various dyes. They are larger than Poppies, and their 
dazzling tints are beautifully relieved by the green leaves. 
The young Chinese poets are particularly fond of celebrating 
the beauty of the Water Lily gleaming in the moonlight, as 
the boats row about illumined by swarms of glow-worms 
and fire-flies. 
The Water Idly is very remarkable, too, in a utilitarian 
point of view. Its seeds are eaten as nuts are in Europe, 
and boiled in sugar and water they are considered delicious 
by epicures. The gigantio root is a great resource for 
culinary preparations, and in whatever way it is dressed it 
is always excellent and wholesome. The Chinese pickle 
great quantities of it with salt and vinegar, to eat with rice ; 
reduced to powder, it is extremely agreeable when boiled 
with milk or water, and in the summer it is eaten raw, like 
fruit, ancl is very refreshing. Finally, the leaves of it are 
constantly made use of, instead of paper, for wrapping up 
all kinds of things, and when dried are often mixed with 
tobacco, to render it a little milder.—S. P., Rmlmere. 
FISH AND FISH-PONDS.—CHINESE WHEAT. 
The province of Kiang-si possesses another trade less 
: important and valuable, doubtless, than the China manufac- 
j ture, but worthy of remark on account of its peculiarity, 
and the profits of which are not to be despised. This 
; province is very marshy and abounds in ponds; there is 
scarcely a cottager who cannot boast at least of one close to 
his house, and these are turned to account for the rearing of 
fish, which yield annually a considerable revenue to their 
cultivators 
In spring, a number of men go round the provinces 
selling spawn. Their establishment consists of a wheel¬ 
barrow loaded with barrels containing a thick liquid, more 
like mud than anything else. It is impossible to distinguish 
the smallest animalcule in it with the naked eye. For a few 
sapecks you may buy a bowlful of this mud, enough to sow 
