The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-05-28

And said to his mates, II declare
If wireless telegraphy comes into vogue
Wen all have to sit on the air."
There is no law to prevent the far
mer to remove his fence and extend
his corn6eld or potato patch to
the verge of the road, but in doing
so he is harming himself in the long
run and injuring the public that
should possess some rights in the
roadside which is thus converted into
a waste of mud or dust during a large
part of the year. Such withholding
of more than is meet tends surely to
poverty. The man who cuts down
the scanty remnant of wild growths
and plows up the roadside acts with
in his legal right, but the birds that
he has thus evicted can give him no
aid in his conflict with insects. May
not the small gain that he has snatch
ed from the roadside be more than
offset by the expense and labor of
using poisonous sprays and powders
to save his crops from devouring
pests? The birds that have been
driven from his denuded domain will
seek shelter and do their work else
where, perhaps in village gardens
where they are welcomed and in some
degree protected.
VALUE OF THE OLD FENCE.
The old fence, with its wealth of
shrubbery and creepers, sheltered
numberless bird communities. A
lar with every yaro OF Ienclng upon
the farm, could tell of snug blue
bird home, occupied year after year,
in a well-concealed nook, like little
wigwam, at the junction Of fence rails
and slanting stakes topping an old
stone wall, overhung by Virginia
creeper and shaded by wild cherry
trees. In one of these the child had
watched robin ''plasterin" her adobe
nest with an eye to good foraging
close at hand in the caterpillars' tent.
Not far away one might hear the call
of catbird from its ancestral home,
and beside the wall, in a deep briery
tangle too we'll defended to be reach
ed by the lithest squirrel, quiet
chippie would have hidden her pretty
basket. The child had found out the
secret of phebe's nest in the little
cavern made by projecting stone in
the wall sheltered by an overhanging
larger one. The wrens knew of many
safe nook for their nestlings in the
old fence, the song sparrows loved it.,
and there in midsummer one might
see a gentle pair of cedar birds or
catch the flash of shining wings and
the warbling of gold6nches. Some
where within call would dwell the
Greatheart of the feathered commun-
ity, the kingbird, ever ready to spring
to the rescue upon the first note of
alarm at the approach of some rapa-
cious intruder.
Within the stretch of few rods
could be found all this variety of bird
life and even morn, and when one
considers that the wild hedge became
the final refuge of numberless birds
driven from the forests to the upland
pastures and the swamps, and upon
the clearing up of these to the borders
of the fields; and, furthermore, that
within recent years in the aggregate
thousands of miles of the old embow
cred fences have disappeared, one may
have some conception of the vast mum
bers of birds that have thus been dis
possessed of their homes. There ha:
been zeal not according to knowl
edge for "clean farming" and neigh
Dor las We'd with neighbor in effort.
to attain that baroness which ha.
come to be regarded as identical will
neatness.
1t would seem that one of the rar
est of gifts is the innate perception
that recognizes the beauty and wortl
of things which are the common in
heritance of dwellers in the country
Generous nature never provided
lovelier object to charm the eyes o
her human children, nor one NOR
perfectly suited to the various neeo
of her winged ones than the wilt
hedge, yet this has become thing
despised and is swiftly passing out o
existence. 1t will soon be mer
memory unless the eyes of farmer
can be opened to its beauty and utility
And how shall the farmers of to
day be brought to value and cherisl
the birds?
1t would seem that the man VIII
now tills the soil might find it as up
lifting as did his predecessors upol
the same acres to see and hear
The blueb!rd shifting his light load Of song fror
post to post,
but the evidence is abundant tina
many farmer hardly knows the diff
ference between the tuneful bluebir'
and the chattering bluejay, and, in
deed, with good reason, for the blue
birds, through repeated evictions fror
their nesting places and various othe
misfortunes, seemed a few years ago t
be in danger of extinction, and in man