THE PESTS OF THE FARM.

Southland Times, Issue 1043, 23 October 1868, Page 3

THE PESTS OF THE FARM.

In the current ' Quarterly Eeview, there is a very interesting article on the *' Farmers' Eriends and Foes" — these being th© various quadrupeds, birds, and . insects to be found on our farms. It is . of thejiighesfc consequence, especially to the farmer,, that he should be able to discriminate friend from foe, as there cannot be a doubt that, through ignorance of its liabite or prejudice against its form, many a useful animal to, the agriculturist has been sacrificed. It appears that very early and very authoritatively was the heresy of bird destruction implanted in the agricultural mind.* In the reign of James L, the legislature undertook a crusade against birds of prey, and Acts of Parliament were passed for the destruction of crows and rooks, and rewards were assigned for the taking and bringing in of the heads and ! eggs of divers ravenous birds and vermin. No doubt many, of these are great enemies, but it has been proved that others are only partially so, and others again are undoubted friends. We know that French cooking swallows up little birds by nights, and great thereby has been the havoc in France among sparrows, larks, ; and blackbirds. But this wholesale destruction of bir<3s was followed by a great increase, of injurious insects, and heavy complaints in consequence came from the Departments. In England, the farmer, in the paradoxical attempt by sparrow f clubs and other intelligent devices to preserve his seed corn, shoots and destroys his best allies, the natural enemies of the slug and wire-worm. In France, on the other h£rid, the farmer pleads for the .': small birds against tht professional bird- ■:. catcher and the sporting citizen. The Archbishop of Bordeaux denounced the r wholesale massacre of birds- at a meeting' of &n Agricultural Association held in , : October last, and gave minute; details of ; the number of birds which would be pro--tfuced annually on a square league (if unmolested), and the comparative number of various insects which they might be expected to destroy. The French schooli,masters in. the.rujral^ districts have- been •*.! urged by. _the^.authoriiies- to* prevent as much as poasibler their pupils from robbing the bird*' nests of their eggs.