The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1881-07-07
Robins and Strawberries.

The robin gets its name from its rea-
ton to the strawberry bed. We believe
that naturalists and phlologists are
agreed upon this point Some very earnest
champions, not only Of the theory of de-
sign in everything, but also of mans abl-
ity to discover every time what the de-
sign is, contend that the red breast Of the
bird is given it as a protection, like the
white OF the snow ptarmgan or the au-
tumn brown of the partridge, SO that
when at work among the red berries its
color will prevent its detection.
This works up neatly, but we doubt it.
1t is the theory of the philosopher in his
closet, not OF the gardener III his para
disc. The fact is there is certain pre-
VlouSness III the temperament Of the bird
! that prevents it from waiting for the red
berries, which has tendency to weaken
this otherwise clever conclusion. The
owner Of the strawberry plants, as the
crop approaches maturity, surveys the
bed with no little pride, notes the earliest
and most promising plants, and decides
that the next day he will pick cupful
for taste. But that very day the robin
drops down among the immature fruit,
regardless of any question of the fitness
Of colors, and clears off everything that
has amy show of ripening about it, If the
! supply is a tritie scant he cuts off some
| entirely hard ones and throws them about
Just for green's" as they say. On the
other hand, if the supply is too liberal,
after he has eaten his fill he goes about
punctuling the rest, slashing them to
pieces with his beak
ON the first day this is a disappoint-
ment to the cultivator; by the third day
1t IS real annoyance; on toward the
middle of the second week it is an I'M
bearable outrage, and he buys shad net
for protection. a shad net iSvery differ
ent from robin. \ robin takes only the
strawberry whereas the shad net will take
everything. Before You get it all spread
out 1t has caught around coat buttons,
Sleeve-buttons, rt-pin, shoe buttons,
and anything else it can grab, and the
first result OF your experiment is to find
yourself considerably involved, as they
say when a man runs away In this case,
however, you are so involved that there
is no running, When it is unwound, you
finally do spread the net over your plants
preparatory to stretching it on a frame
1t settles quietly down and the work is
about done. AT last you give it hearty
pull and lift the net off the ground 1t
comes, but it still has the same charac-
terstlcs that made it grab every button
you had. In each mesh is either a bios
som or berry. Thinking that they will
shake out you pull still harder. Sudden
ly they start and before you realize it, YOU
have stripped the whole of them of YOUR
vines. There they lie, from red berry to
white flower, the whole harvest cleaned
right off. Thus the net is more thorough
than the robin, but they each work to the
same result.
For us in the city, therefore, it is
choice of evils. If we insist upon pre-
tending to raise berries, we must decide
between cultivating shad nets or robins.
The berry business is mere disguise for
these other industries. There are reasons
why it is better to let the net alone and
attend only to robins. The former are
rather rank in flavor. The more you
handle them the more the unpleasant
side of the fish business suggests itself.
Not 50 the robin. 1t is a real delcacy.
The thing to do is to realize the true
worth of the bird. We must dispose
of sentiment as the robin does of the
| berries swallow it. The fact is that
there is nothing better on the table than
good plump robin, and there is no rea-
son why we should rebel against killing
robins, then telephone to the market for
pair of "broiler" chickens. A birds a
bird for all O that. We must come to re-
gard the berry crop as means to an end
1t IS like grain on a stock farm. 1t fattenS
the animals. That is the whole of it.
There is no call to worry about lost fruit
if only bythebye we rejoice over birds
that are gathered The time will come
when people will realize this, and one
robin pot-pie will balance good many
lost strawberry shortcakes. So long as
we try to raise trees and birds and Der
rles, one Of the crops is doomed to fail.
Our duty is to harvest what is left.
Charles Dudley Warner