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Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 943, 13 March 1872, Page 2

The poor sparrows which the Acclimatisation Society of Nelson took so much pains to introduce from the mother country, seem to have found mortal enemies among the farmers of the hamlet of Stoke, near Nelson. At the last meeting of the Stoke Farmers Club, the Chairman asked the committee appointed to collect information respecting the sparrows, to make their statements. The committee stated several facts showing that where these birds are numerous they have caused great destruction to corn crops ; they attack the standing corn as soon as the grain begins to form in the ear, and continue their havoc until harvest. ,The meeting adopted a resolution un-

aniinously, to the effect that the Superintendent and Provincial Council should be asked to withdraw the protection to the sparrows, to enable the farmers to shoot them while attacking the corn crops Frederick the Great of Prussia, who, it seems, was a great lover of cherries, issued an order that all small birds should be destroyed because he was told they devoured the cherries ; so far as could be done, his orders were of Course obeyed, with the result that in a few years there was not a cherry to be got throughout his kingdom, the insects had not only devoured the fruit, but destroyed the trees.