DAD'S DEAL

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 255, 5 March 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

DAD'S DEAL

D d sat on the barn doorstep,refhetively nibblinur corn grains from a sample of oats in his hand. Behind him in the barn were 200 sackf of oats from last year's threshing. There had heui 400 sucks, but, price* being low. Dad had hung on to half of tho yield, hoping for a rise. It was a long time coming that rise, and now the storekeeper was trotting nasty about his bill. We wanted seed wheat and oats, grass seed, htrrow, and harne-s and lots of things, so these oats had to go. rseor no rise. It, was hard luck, and Dad was fee'ing disgusted. Whilo he s-it thinking (and here I should explain that Dad thought more than he read. A subscription to a newspaper ho termed wicked waste) a smart little dog-cart drove into the yard and a long-legged drummer jumped out. Wc knew him He was a sort of traveling buyer and seller for a farmers' oampany at Dunedin, and had be?n hpre before. Dad had tried to sell him the 200 bag* of oats every time ho came round. This time he showed us a splendid lot of sample seeds, and of course before long Dad asked what ho would give for the oats '' Well, look here," says Seeds, " we're full up of oats just now, cau't get iid of them, but if you'll take all your seeds, stores, and implements from us, I'll give you 2s 9d the bushel." Now this was three pence more than his last offer, and tho sime amount more than Dad had been offered this last six months by old Dusty the miller. Dad had carried a sample of the oats in his prcket up and down to the township once a week regularly, but never could get a penny advance out of the miller, who only offered market prices for locil oats, though when he bought in Dunedin he had to pay railage out in addition.

In spite of this, when Seeds said 2s 9d, Dad tried to get another penny out of him. Seeds prcfr nded to get wild, and said : " Do you think I buy oats for fun ? I don't want your oats. They're no use to mc, I'll only get my own again out of them—no profit in it. If I give you another penny I might as well give you a present of a fiver at once. Save all the trouble, too." " Oh, all right, you can have them," says Dad. " Hear the man," said Seeds. " I can have them indeed. Why, I'm only taken them to oblige you, man." He booked Dad's orders for harness, stores, seeds, a harrow, and so od. They reckoned up the value of the oals, deducted the amount of the goods, and Seeds gave Dad a cheque for the balance, " Suppose I'll book these oats to you at Dunedin, you pay carriage," said Dad. " Oh, no, no, don't trouble," replied Seed?, as he climbed into his dog-cart. " Just deliver them at old Dusty's Tlour mill. Goad day," and drove off. "Well I'm dashed," said Dad. He was a great deal more dashed next when after diiving his first load of oats to the mill he found old Dusty would have given him 3s per bushel for his oats, there having been a sudden rise in the market. Seeds must have pocketed a tenner, aDd without doing anything but get the better of Dad in a deal. But he never sjld us any more seeds, and from that time a couple of newspapers used to grace our table.—G. Strachan. THE SPARROW NUISANCE. The following is an abridgement of a pamphlet published for free distribution by Miss Ormerod and Mr Tegetmeier. It is a strong indictment against that feathered thief, the house sparrow, and is worthy of perusal by agriculturists, who are the chief sufferers from the depredations of this impudent little pest:— The sparrow question is one which is still constantly recurring, as it has done for many years, and as it will continue to do until reliable evidence of the nature of the bird's food is more accessible for general information than it is at present in this country. The mischief that is done by the sparrows is easily observable, but excepting in connection with these noticeable devastations, the nature of their food (meaning by this what the adult birds feed on during the year, and what the nestlings are fed on) is far from as Well brought forward as is desirable, and the published records of as much as we know (whether for or against Passer domesticus) are neither as well before the public, nor as accessible to those practically concerned, as it would bo well for them to be. The most detailed account that is generally accessible of the food of the house sparrow, is that giveu by the ornithologist, Mr J. H. Gurney, of Norwich. The table from which the following information was prepared shows the contents of G 94 house sparrows. The dissections were made by twelve or more qualified observers, in various places, at regular intervals throughout the entire year, the observations being recorded under the heads of " Customary food " and " Occasional food." FOOD OF ADULT SPARROWS. January (corresponding to July in N.Z.).— Customary food: Corn from stacks and poultry yards; seeds of all kinds. Occasional food: Refuse corn, maize, and capsules of moss. February (N.Z. August).—Customary food: Corn from stacks and poultry yards. Occasional food : Seeds ; buds of gooseberries. March (N.Z. September).—Customary food: Corn, wherever they can get it. Occasional food : Young tops of pejus, radish, cabbage and cauliflower; seeds, freshly-sown barley and oats. Ai>ril(N.Z. October).—Corn, vegetable matter. Occasional food: Freshly-sown barley and oats; oblong green seeds, not identified ; caterpillars, May (N.Z, November).—Customary food : Corn; vegetable matter; seeds. Occasional food : Young pea-pods and leaves of peas ; gooseberry blossoms and young gooseberries; small beetles; caterpillar's of the brimstone moth, and white cabbage butterflies ; turnip seed ; hay seed ; sprouts of young barley half an inch long; pollen of the sycamore and apple ; mangold leaves. June (N.Z. December). —Customary food : Corn ; vegetable matter; seeds of various sorts ; peas. Occasional food: Gooseberries and other fruit; lettuces ; small beetles ; mangold leaves, JcljY (N.Z. January).—Customary food: Young wheat, barley, and oats ; -vegetable matter ; seeds of various weeds. Occasional food : Peas ; small beetles; beans ; seeds of wild spinach. August (N.Z. February).—Customary food : Wheat, barley, oats. Occasional food: Seeds of corn, bindweed, knotgrass, etc. ; aphides, small beetles, Daddy Longlegs, caterpillars, moths. September (N.Z, March). —Customary food: Corn ; seeds of many kinds, especially the knotgrass and corn bindweed. Occasional food: Caterpillars ; berries ; seeds of plaintfiin. October (N.Z. April).—Customary food : Grain, some of It refuse grain ; seeds of many kinds, including knot-grass. Occasional food not recorded. November (N.Z. May).—Customary food: Grain, seeds of plants. Occasional food: Newly-sown seeds of wheat; small caterpillars. December (N.Z. June).—Customary food : Grain, principally from stacks. Occasional food : Seeds, maize, sprouting beans. FOOD OF YOUNG SPARROWS TO TIIK TIJIE OF LEAVIXO TIIE NEST. May (N.Z. November). Customary food : Grains of last year's corn ; small beetles; caterpillars. Occasional food : Duds ; red spider; hairworms ; small filcH. Jcxe (N.Z. December). Customary food : Caterpillars of various kinds, up to three-quarters of an inch in length ; young wheat. Occasional food : Beetles, large brown Cabbage Moth, wireworm, July (N.Z. January).—Customary food : Caterpillars ; beetles ; soft milky grains of wheat and barley. Occasional food : iShiebottle-ilies. ArorsT (N.Z. February).—Customary food: Caterpillars ; beetles ; young corn. Occasional food : Small chrysolida. Some amount of good is noted by Mr Guniey as done by sparrows feeding (in conjunction with other little birds) on seeds of various kinds of weeds, but the extent of beuefit received in this way varies greatly according to local circumstances. In an exhibition of 100 stomachs of young sparrows, bofore the British Association at Birmingham in ISGS, not 5 per cent, of them contained insect food. Col. Champion Russell, Essex, records the examination of the contents of the stomachs of sparrows shot over a wide extent of country during fifteen years. He says : " The food m the old ones was almost all corn during the whole year; green peas were also found in them iu summer; and in May and June, when corn is scarce, a few wild seeds, chiefly of grass. No insect has been found by me in a sparrow between September and March. I have not often found one at any season (particularly between June aud March) in a sparrow old enough to feed itself, and have seldom found any number of insects in one, even when corn could scarcely be got. On the whole, the deduction from the food-test,

during fifteen years, seems to he that the sparrows are useless, aud that the iitsects which would bo given to their young by them would be so much food taken, when they most want it, from better birds which live entirely, or nearly so, on insects, and thus keep.' them, especially caterpillars, down effectively in the absence of sparrows." Independently of the sparrow (which is often brought forward as if our safety from insect ravage lay in keeping this one species), we are excellently supplied with a watchful and efficient bint police, able and willing to take the insect robbers of our fields and gardens in charge, and helpful, without raising undue levies for the support of overwhelmingly increasing progeny, aud without dispossessing far better tenants from their houses. FECUNDITY OF THE SPARROW. One pair of these birds frequently produces more than twenty young ones in the season, three or four broods of six or seven each being stated to be not unusual; and a very little calculation will show that in six years, where no disaster betides them, the progeny of one single pair will amount to millions, as evidenced by the rapidity with which the small number imported have spread over the United States, Australia aud New Zealand. We have evidence of the broad-scale losses caused by the introduction of the sparrow, in the devastations brought about by its introduction into the United States, Canada, and Australasia; and we have evidence in our own country of the saving of crops and restoration of helpful birds by systematic destruction of this one kind ; but we have no reliable records of injurious effects being caused by enforced banishment or destruction of the sparrow. SUGGESTIONS FOR COPING WITH THE PEST. We do not pretend to offer suggestions as to what may be considered fitting to do by Government authority, but much of their own protection lies in the hands of fanners themselves; and sparrow clubs, well worked, aud always bearing in mind that it is only this one bird that is earnestly recommended to their atteniou, would probably lessen the load to a bearable amount; and we believe that subscriptions, whether local or from those Who know the desirableness of aiding in the work of endeavouring to save the bread of the people from these feathered robbers, would be money wisely and worthily spent. THE FEATHERED POLICE. Amongst the birds mentioned by Miss Ormerod aud Mr Tegetmcier, in the pamphlet from which the above extracts tire taken, as being helpful to farmers are : Swallows, martins, titmice (including the blue, Cole, marsh, long-tailed and great tit), warblers, woodpeckers, the nuthatch, treecreeper, gold-crested regulus, yellow wagtail, titlark, cuckoo, water rail, wren, swift, partridge, spotted flycatcher, pipit, starling, snow buntiug, rook, crow, seagull, peewit, plover, linnet, greenfinch, chaffinch, and the yellow-hammer. The martins and swallows are particularly valuable allies of the farmer ill tho fight against insect foes, aud they and many other wholly insectivorous birds are attacked and driven from their nestingplaces by the baneful aud pugnacious little sparrow.