IMPORTED PESTS.
Probably more frequent examples of the operation vulgarly yclept " getting ont of the frying-pan into the fire" are to be found m connection with the mistaken efforts of enthusiastic acclimatisationists than m connectfon with any other department of the multifold organisations of modern%imes. We do not deny that on the other hand Acclimatisation Societies have effected much good, especially m stocking our rivers with fish, bnt the fact remains that the winged and four-footed pests which they have introduced more than balance the
account, for the rabbit and tbo sparrow are more than an offset to any amonnt trout and salmon. Every now and then bitter complaints reach us from gardeners and others as to the mischief wrought by certain species of small f birds, which ought to have been carefully kept out of the country jnstead of being bronght into it at considerable expense. For example, a correspondent resident near Ashburton writes : — " Bother the birds. I have a promising young apricot tree in full bloom, and this morning counted over a hundred blossoms. A few hours afterwards to my dismay, I discovered that over forty of these had been nipped off and were lying* on the ground. Bore that somebody or eome thing had been meddling with the tree, I set a^i watch for the culprit, and presently a greenfinch was discovered in flagrante delicto fiitting from the apricot to an adjacent tree with a blossom in its beak." " What am I to do ?" plaintively asks our correspondent. Well, if the tree is a small one and is traitfed upon a wall, the best thing to be done is to cover it with a piece of mos- ' qoito net or other common cotton netting, or with a piece of scrim, or if it be a standard tree out in the open, hang from the branches a few bright glass bottles— empty medicine phials will do —as the birds fight shy of trees from which such glittering articles are suspended. It is a nuisance no doubfc to have to take all these precautions to save the fruit, but there is no help for it. The small birds are bad enougb, but we fear that the ferrets will yet prove a worse pest. Down Tnapeka way, it is believed that they are already playing haToc with the lambs. This is what the local paper says . abottt it. "Mr John Pearson found eight of his lambs dead on Monday, håving all the appearance of håving been stabbed with a knife. On.Xuesday, two more were found dead with a small puncture in the side of the neck. The wound is a small, clean cut, inflicted right over the juguiar vein, and the ,-wool around it is slightly clotted with saliva tainted with blood, as if the wound had been sucked. It appears that a rabbiter lost a ferret in this TWiaity reoejitly, and fcrwtø wc «tid.
to have been seen on Mr Cameron's | property." This ib unpleasant news, and points to the probability of still more unpleasant developments. It is something like the old problem Quts custodiet custodes ? — we have imported the ferrets to get rid of the rabbits, and now it looks as if we should have to import something else to get rid of the ferrets.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1951, 22 September 1888, Page 4
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547IMPORTED PESTS. Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1951, 22 September 1888, Page 4
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