Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-06-06
M | sc Z L LA N Y.
FRUITS, BIRDS, AND FLOWERS.

Among the many bounties and blessings Of
Providence, which human beings do not suffi-
ciently appreciate, may be mentioned the trio
which stands at the head of this article. Fruits
constitute one Of our choicest luxuries, as well
as one Of our most wholesome and most essen
,ial kinds of food. Could our whole popula-
tion have an abundance Of good fruit, at all Pc
RODS Of life from the cradle to the grave, we
should certainly, as people, have greater Wig
or and better health, while we should, in all
probability, be comparatively free from many
of the diseases which now devastate civilized
society at all seasons of the year, and, occa-
sionally, in all places.
We're our children plentifnlly supplied with
good fresh fruit and plain bread, in lieu OF fried
meats and larded short-cakes, we should hear
very little Of the multitudnous bowel complaints
which, In the warm season, sweep the children
TO their graves as though they were only born
TO die; and still less of the scarlet fevers and
.erysipelatous affections which, as children are
now fed, rage among our infantile population,
as though their little bodies were all unsound-
mess and corruption.
Fruits are scarce and dear all over the coun-
try, and in some places hardly obtanable on
ANY terms. In our cities they are the mos: ex-
pensive item in proper dietary. But they
should be the most abundant and the cheapest
of all food. They can be, and will be when
ever our agricuhurists take the requisite pains
to cultivate them. And they will then prove
The most remunerative product of the farmer.
One of the leading objections to Horticulture
is tho liability of the fruit, and even the tree
to be damaged or destroyed by insects. Oul
gardeners and nurserymen have discovered ;
regiment of enemies to contend with, in thu
shape of some hundreds of bugs, flies, worms
etc, which delight to prey on their fruits, flow
ers, vegetables, plants, shrubs, and trees. AM
this is, indeed, formidable obstacle.
But for all this, we suspect man has only t
blame his own short-sightedness, or folly, O
perversity. He has destroyed the birds, the ma,
ufal protectors of all these things. In the at
mirable arrangements of nature, the feathere
songsters are intended to be the most effcier
of the husbandman's auxiliaries. Not only
they, in the natural order, amuse US with the
gambols, and entertain our mornings and eve
nings with the inspirting music of joy and tn
sweet songs of love, but they destroy, by fee,
ing on them, the very creatures which, othe
vineyards, our meadows, and pastures, ar
groves.
By destroying the birds we destroy the ba
ance the alwise Creator has established in Il
animal and the vegetable kingdoms. We ha,
done even worse than this. We have taug
our little children the wicked sport of kllir
birds, thus depraving them as we'll as injuriI
those who never did toward US single de,
lhat was not kind and good. Our boys al
our young men have, in their absence of re
game or injurious animals, found cruel pa
time in the bad habit of "gunning !" and tn,
have esteemed il manly enterprise to sho
the little innocent birds while frolicking in the
roseate bowers, or singing merrily on the TT
tops.
o man, tyrannic lord!
How long shall PROSTATE nature groan beneat
Your rage!
Verify, we have our reward. The bugs
stroy our vines, the vermin revel in our Aowe
the worms despoil our fruits, and the inset
prey on the foliage of our shade-rees.
But our folly has not stopped here. T
marshes and the stagnant pools, which for
time are permitted to exist on various parts
the earth's surface exhale poisonous and des
ly miasms. But wherever il is proper or n,
essary for man to spread his domain and bu
his habtaion, there benefcent nature has p
vlded the scavengers 10 gather up the miasm
&c influence, and transform the deadly virus
to salubrious perfumes and delightful arom
The flowers spring up, spontaneously, as
seems to us, in and around the marshes. I
suniiower opens its beauteous petals, takes FRI
the atmosphere the pestential vapor, and
turns to us its elements recompounded in
form of vital air. The water-lily, which son
times covers the whole area of the shallow Ia
or turbid pond, and skirts the borders of {
swamps and pools, absorbs the mephtic gas
ana renders them innocuous to man. And
oil thousand other beauteous or fragrant flo
ers which adorn the landscape and enliven