FOWLS AS GARDENERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 259, 5 December 1914, Page 13

FOWLS AS GARDENERS.

. Generally speaking, fowls are regarded as being very poor gardeners indeed, and while xinder certain circumstances and at certain seasons this character may be a perfectly true one, at the same time it does not always hold good, for there are times when fowls make really excellent horticulturists, and do more in a single day towards the welfare of a garden than any man could hope to do in a week. Of course, adult fowls should not be turned into, say, a garden full of young plants, expecting that such would be benefited by the fowls' presence. It is quite another matter, however, when, in the dead season, the ground is devoid of plant life. It is then that the fowls display their skill in gardening, for, instead of destroying all the .vegetation, as they would do if such were present, they scratch with a will the whole day long, turning up no end of noxious insects in all stages of development, and all these they devour with an eager appetite, thus ridding the ground of many a harmful foe, besides which the soil is improved by the birds' droppings, which is a very strong fertiliser. Ducks may be turned in a garden with like results, and as these birds do not possess the scratching-propensities of fowls, it is safe to allow them in such places as would suffer from the continual raking and turning giveu the soil by fowls, and provided no succulent youug plants are growing. 'Vegetation* does not, as a rule, receive any serious onslaughts from ducks, while there are present plenty of slugs, worms, and other harmful forms of insect life.