BIRDS AS NUISANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 308, 30 December 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

BIRDS AS NUISANCES.

BLUE PAPER A REMEDY. Birds are often nuisances in the garden, welcome though they are, on account of the manner in which they attack flowers, seeds and fruit. A fact which has recently been demonstrated at a British experimental station is that sparrows and nearly all birds have a perfect horror of blue- paper. Over seed beds lengths of twine were stretched, and from these strips of blue paper were hung, and the birds left the situation severely alone. In the same way, pieces of bright blue paper were hung about fruit trees, and not a single bird approached. This fact is certainly one that it would pay the firdener to note, for birds have been the utost diflicult of all things to deal with, seeing that they so soon get used to scarecrows. A FREAK RADISH. A correspondent from Remuera scuds a radish which is of an unusual shape. Vegetables of grotesque forms and shapes are not infrequent, especially amongst root crops. The specimen is shaped like a dumb-bell. The top is a red turnip-rooted radish, the tap root having divided into two, thickened to about°thc size of a black lead pencil and of a length of about two inches. This has then swollen and formed another bulb, but in this case it is a white one. To explain the. matter is much more difficult, in fact it is impossible, and all one can do is to guess as to the reason. At some stage in the life of the radish some obstruction has occurred to the lower portion of the root and prevented it from swelling laterally, until having got beyond the obstruction 'it has been enabled to again swell out to the correct size. The difference in colour is due to the lower bulb growing entirely below the soil and away from the light. BORDER CARNATIONS. The ground around border carnations should be hoed and given a dressing of eoot, to be repeated fortnightly. This acts as a manure, and brightens the flowers of many varieties, while it aleo serves to keep slugs in check where they are troublesome. A good fertiliser may be used alternately with the soot to 'increase the size and number of the flowers, and give plenty of grass for layering. / SILVER LEAF DISEASE. Silver leaf disease is due to a fungus named Stereum . purpurcum, which attacks many kinds of cultivated fruit trees, but is more severe on the plum. Whenever a branch is ecen carrying the characteristic silvery leaves-it should he cut back to a point below any discoloured wood, and all pieces cut off should be burnt at once, to prevent the disease spreading to healthy trees. Tar the cut surface of the tree.

One of the cleverest birds in the world is the "honey guide" of Africa, which has learned to entice men to open beehives for him. The "honey guide" has a eweet tooth, as well as a liking for the larvae of bees. He is a small bir-1 and beehives are hard for him to crack. So he eeeks out a man, and when he finds one, perches in a tree and begins to chatter. This means that he knows where there is a hive, and that he wants the man to follow him. He leads his human assistant to the hive. Thess birds are highly valued in Africa, ami to kill them is a misdemeanour punishable by law.