The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-09-12
Written for the FLoRIDIAN.l
''The Daa Brigade"


| BY PROF. J. p. srELLE, AGRICULTURAL EDITOR
MOBILE REGISTER.
Some months ago gentle nan fell SD deeply
in love with my beautiful home and expert
mental farm at Ctronelle Mobile county, Ala
| bama, that he prompted To offer me more
money for it, cash down, than Thought it was
worth As a result il went into The hands OF a
new master, setting me adritt with no place OF
| my own that would he willing TO call home
| Feeling that new home must soon be forth
| coming, began casting plans looking 10 it, es
| Enlistment. My old home hid been ii regular
| pei, or, Father an a4, Dci,tion of many pets |
had built il up from unoccupied ground. and for
twelve years had spared neither pains nor ex
pense in my efforts tai IN axe it both pleasant and
attractive. With this information in their pos
session, few will be surprised when say that
could not bear the idea of living longer in Git
ronelle There is something in olr natures,
you know, which make us seriously dislike tD
see our pets in the hands and under the exclu-
sive control of others. | resolved to quit Git
ronele Immediately, which did, taking up my
temp 'rary residence At Mpnrrps,.. on lhe eastern
shore offMobile Bay.
But where was the next permanenl home to
be? That was now the alI-absOrbng question
Fol- long time had been hearing good things
said OF The TalldhIssee region, in Florida for
soOth, had that region strongly in mind when
sold out in Alabama / had never Vet visited
Tallahassee, but thought | shOull do 80 in the
fall; in the mean time VIII 1t wa, tle b st course
TO pursue with view to putting myself in DOS.
alci.., ,ffI,.. I,-.-
the region that was desirous oi studying? To
an old newspaper man the correct answer came
without delay: lad Il Tlllaha,see nexspl-
| per. 80 sent for The WEEKLY FLoRGDrAN,
and receive numb r datcl Angus; Sth, every
line in tie paper pleLs Il m , an incre Use nv
already favorable impression of Cen raj Foridi,
until cane 10 the following in The : Local D.
panmeDt
The bat brigade prep ,ring 70. active op-
erations along the whole line som: of them
were out yesterday evening, and one young man
brought down seventeen IN thiiteen shots. while
another killed three in eight shoIs, and a raw
recruit shot away all his ammunition and
killed OO0r'
To the mau who understands such things
clearly, the foregoing forms a most decidedly
bad advertisement for Tallahassee 1t tells of
an over supply of mosquitoes, together with
most of the noxioIs insects which fee upon the
growing crops, and it advances the idea thai
they are not the result of climate or locality,
but OF the thnughtless acts of portion of Talls-
hassee's peOplc OF course cannot b. positive
AS to what creature is meant by bat thouyl,
suspect that it is bird known for comm IN in
the South as the . Bull Bal" AMI for common
at the North as the Night-Hawk the An
fr0stomus Pirginianus of scientists But even sup
posing that IL is only the common bat (Cheirop-
terdl the case is made by no means good, for the
common bat is strictly an insectivorbls amin Il,
wonderfully useful to man rs II destroyer of
flies, gnats, mosquitoes and other noxious insects
of similar Character and never injurious in any
shape or form. Il does no harm whatever
But let Us go back to the Bull-Bli, whose
champion | am on all occasions. Ii the people
OF Florida are permitting and even encouraging
a wanton destruction of thn ere lture, they are
pursuing the worst course which they could pos
sibly pursue. Every Bull Bat kilIel may be
safely set down as at least fifty dollars sunk to
the farmer, the gardener and the orchardisr, to
say nothing of the resultant increase in numbers
of gnats. mosquitoes and the like. Did you
never notice the balls of insects stuck together
by glutiOnous substance, and carried in the
throat Of the Bull Bat? In many cases it took
hundreds Of insects To compose those balls, and
hence il must be seen that hundreds u genera.
tions were cut short in their formation OF
course need not explain that the halls found in
the throat of the old Bird when shot, were COL
lectons which she had made for the young de-
pending upon her for support and that, there.
fore, ller destruction led to the destruction of
perhaps other birds from starvation
No creature in existence could possibly be
more harmless 10 man than the BuI-BAt and
no bird is more useful. Being g richly insectver-
Gus, il destroys immense numbers of insects, aud
being strictly nocturnal in It's habits, it seldom
gets an insect belonging To any of our beneficial
species All of the worst insects we have are
nocturnal; that is, the pertec, insects fly at
night only. Such is the char .cter of the moth
or fly" producing the C AlbI worm; also that
producing the cabbage worm, the tobacco worm.
and also the male of the orange scale insect, aud
so on 10 almost endless extent This being the
case, our day-biris can do but little towards
checking insect scourges-all they can do is to
devour the larvas worms that may be reached
In the day time. Not so with our nocturnal
birds, ~ the BulIBat-they take the perfect in.
sect on the wing, and since. as it were, cut off
the stream at It's very source. And yet we go
on amusing ourselves by destroying these night
birds-for what. Let us ask ourselves that
question. They are n''t game birds. We never
think of eating them. Then why do we kin
them! Why, TO play upon Shakespeare do
we perform an act which pro6lelh ~ not, but
which maketh the hmer poor indeed,
No farmer, or other person having at heart the
good nf his locality. should countenance the
shooting Of Bull Bats for one moment In many
States there 10 law against shooting them. but
where such q law does not exist, public opinien
| should 90 mould itself - 70 make the acl be
looked upon as something disgr ,ceal--,hat
would stop II. Why do you never see = lot Of
young bearlIess bhols g.,ing ab mi your heI.Is
and yards shooting toads. Because such port