The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1907-09-11
Our Birds.
Continued from Page 1.)

Jury, but | feel that | must pay some
thing for their service to me in the
eradication of bugs, worms, and seeds
of weeds, and so I pay my toll most
cheerfully When the gardener figures
up the immense amount of good that
the birds do him, individually, it is
hard to believe that he can be so blind
to his own best interests, as to kill
single one of his benefactors, even
those with bad regulations.
1t happens in this day and age, that
we have scientific men who give freely
Of their store of knowledge, and it is
not necessary for the masses to apply
themselves to a subject to learn what
they may wish to know, and if one
reads the common newspapers of the
day, assuming that he may belong to
the class that SCOTS at scientific jour
mails, and farming periodicals, he must
know the facts that I am endeavoring
to fix his attention on. [ hope to see
laws made by each State to protect
Our benefactOrs among Our feathered
through an intelligent study of the
habits and traits of the bird family in
our public schools. Twelve years ago
I went to live near large park in one
Of our western cities. Just back of the
park was a great settlement of foreign
laborers, and school that accomodat-
ed fifteen hundred children was locat-
ed within three blocks of this park
The park superintendent often made
the remark to me when [ first went
through his hower-houses, that it was
almost useless to attempt to make a
park. or raise flowers, because of the
vandalism of the children and half
grown boys from the foreign settle
ment nearby. Just at this time teach
er was appointed to this school, and
she was a great lover of flowers. No
more was she settled in her school
room than she had boxes brought in
filled with rich earth, and plants were
set out, ornamental palms and ferns
were bought, and the change in the
appearance of that dingy room, COM
municated itself to the other teachers
in the building. and soon the whole
, great building blossomed like rose,
and hearts that were once hard and
spirits that seemed untamab1e, took on
gracious softening that moral suasiOn
only, could have accomplished. The
children had the pleasure of caring for
the plants, and every day there were
nature-study lessons. telling them of
the marvels that each day wrought in
the pets they were caring for, and be-
fore the experiment was year old, the
superintendent of the park told me of
the wonderful change that had taken
place in the little savages that were
once his bugbear And he said to me,
II think the school back of us must
have something to do with it, for
when the children come in, dragging
even the babies too, and little hand
is stretched out to ravage choice
plant, the older baby restraints the lit
tie hand, and says, no, no, you must
not touch the flower; it is a Hyacinth,
or a Geranium, or some other flower
Thew know nearly all of them now,
and it is a great pleasure for them to
bring their parents in through the
houses ON Sunday, and tell them the
secrets of the flowers, that the teach
ers have taught them in the school,
ROOM"
If we could only impress upon the
teachers Of our state, what an immense
power for good lies in their hands, we
would need no laws to protect our
birds, but it is from this source that I
hope for the greatest good, and if
our editors would occasionally say a
word to Jog the memory of our teach
ers, the leaven would not work so
slowly
When I first came to live in Punta
Gorda, ten years ago, the town was SO