VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS  JAN.   9, 1609
NO   2
Kill the   Hawk.
By Genesis Farm.
I heard the chickens cackling a little bit
ago, and ran out of the house. With
Joy? O, no. Expecting to get an egg?
No, a lemon! I d othis sort of running
frequently. William Watson Woollen
and Amos Butler think it is very good to
improve my health. They think this
running away from some engrossing job
takes the mind off of what the farmer is
attending   to  and   so   improves   life.       I
the rats out of the tree tops in this neighborhood, and out of the sky also. Wherever the hawks live there are none of
these aerial rats left. Of course the
barn rat, the woodpile rat, the granary
rat, and all the ordinary rats, our farms
and  premises  are  overrun   with. The
presence of the hawks does not affect
these varieties of rats, and if I were a
rich man I would offer a reward of $1,000
to any person regardless of race, color,
religion, sex or previous condition of servitude, who ever saw a hawk come down
to a barn or granary or poultry house and
evitably succeeded by civilized man with
the unnatural wheat field, corn field, orchard, poultry yard and Christian farm
house. And as to birds—only those that
sing beautifully, are apparelled beautifully, or are unquestionably useful such
as the wren and quail will be kept. And
if any useful bird shall increase to large
flocks, it will then also be destroyed,
since when so numerous as to move in
flocks nearly all birds become nuisances
in their expanding search for food and in
other ways. No bird is to be allowed to
live because it is a bird,    but solely be-
hand—if I am busy it is five, and it takes
about four hours then. That makes a
total of eight hours, and it is but the beginning of a farmers work."
The young man's face was a study, as
the farmer continued:
"If a man is a good farmer his winter
work is almost as important as his summer work is. About the first thing that
I do, after the other work is out of the
way is to look over the fences carefully
and mend any broken ones that may need
it, or set a new post or string some new
wire.        Of course if there are posts to
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ran very quickly to a chicken, that had
been breathing in the vigor of its full life
a few moments before, but now lay inert
en the grass. I picked it up, it tried to
open its eyes, gave a few convulsive
gasps and lay still, dead. The Woollen-
Butler combination thinks the chicken
died because of heart failure and lack of
breath. So do I. The W-B combination are correct for once in their lives.
They also think the hawk, that flew
away as I burst out of the door ami hurried to the spot where it clutched th«
thicken, if shot and Uad its stomach examined would have shown a stomach free
from chicken meat. I think the same,
—localise I was too quick for it! And
I have the chicken out on the roof of the
chicken house right now, which proves
beyond a doubt that the "classical" work
on which Mr. Butler relies for his knowledge of hawks is infallible!
This hawk is around here very much
and I scare it away ofteni, though not
nften enough! A few hours ago, I
scared it out of a tree top near my front
door. It   was  hunting   for  rats,   aerial
rats. At the M. 6. A. ft II. Society
in June, Mr. Woollen delivereil his us-inl
talk about the English sparrow anil the
poultry eating hawks being blessings to
the farmer and, according to the Indiana
Farmer report, somebody present said
'he seldom sees now-a-days these birds in
his locality, and as a result (sic) his
farm and his premises are overrun with
rats." T'nfortunately in my locality, we
have hawks to spare, but I am quite wilting to grant that they have cleaned  all
catch a rat of the terra firma kind instead
of  a   chicken. But   I   grant   that   the
aerial  rats  are  all    cleaned  out  of  this
neighborhood.
That hawks in forests, marshes, prairie? or any other place distant from settled communities and therefore lacking in
poultry yard products, will eat a mouse
or rat or any other small mammal is undoubtedly true. They are compelled to
eat such things or go hungry. But nobody cares what a hawk eats in the
wilds. It is in civilization's boundaries
that these pests make their troubles.
Changed environment may turn a beneficial bird into an injurious bird. The
"nature-lover" sentimentalists who gabble about protecting foxes, hawks, sparrows, deer, rabbits, lions and tigers (do
not laugh I have been astonished to see
pleas for all tliese pests made in printi
are wasting their not-very-valuable breath
in fighting against the inevitable laws of
evolution nnd of the progress of mankind.
Man will fill tin the low places. level the
hich. make straight the crooked, destroy the untamable wild, govern the wild
made tame, fight nature, as nature, from
♦he day of man's birth till death, and
eroh generation will take up the fight
where the last laid it down till nature will utterly lose its original wild
characteristics or be destroyed: will be
conquered, regulated, ruled by man. A
few wild things will be kept in zoological
parts, and a few wild parks for sightseers may be retained but otherwise nature, as known to the savage, is doomed.
The wild man and wild nature will be in-
cause, and only so long as it does not
interfere with the progress of mankind,
but aids man. To any other bird, beast,
insect, or plant will be meted out extermination as rapidly as man's expanding
power can bring such annihilation to
pass nnd the sooner the better. Kill
every English sparrow and chicken-eating
hawk as fast as you can, the faster the
better.
Putnam   Co.
Winter Work on the Farm.
By Irma B. Matthews.
"I should think it would be fine to
work on a farm and when the work is
finished in the fall not have anything to
do all  winter."
I heard this remark made by a young
city fellow to an old farmer one day, and
he smiled  at him rather grimly.
"It is true," he answered, "that there
are days in the winter when a farmer can
do nothing but his regular chores, but
e^en these might tax you somewhat, and
if he is a good farmer he puts in about
all the time there is, even in the winter.
How many hours do you work?" he continued.
"Ten: from seven to six;" was the
prompt answer.
"Ahem. let me see," began the farmer;
"I get up at five and begin to do the
chores. If everything goes well I am
usually through at nine o'clock. Then I
begin at about four or five at night—depends on whether I have anything else on
set it must be done before the ground
freezes. You cannot imagine what a help
it is, in the rush and hurry of spring
work, to know that my fences are all in
ship shape. Then, too, if there are any
little repairs needed about the buildings I
manage to do that in the winter also.
"Then all the brush and refuse that will
gather about the best conducted farm is
gathered and burned. Before it is frozen
all the manure is drawn to where it is
wanted, and this also saves much time
in the spring. It is not nearly so hard
a job,    if it is kept done.
"When the snow comes however and
these things cannot be attended to I always cut our wood supply for the next
year, and draw and pile it near the
house. Then there is no having to burn
green wood and so try the temper of the
wife.
"The first warm days that come we finish up drawing the manure and every
thing is ready for a good summer's work."
"I do not see where the easy life of a
farmer, that I have always been hearing
about, comes in," declared the city man.
"Easy! Well it is hardly that, but it
is the most independent and the only life
worth living," answered his companion
with a jolly laugh.
What  say  you,   gentlemen?"
Dr. H. W. Wiley, chemist of the Dept:
of Agriculture has our hearty sympathy
in his contest with the/would-be food adulterators who are trying to have him put
cut of office. The people are with him and
he will be sustained.