A hundred years ago
Mr. E.J. Lowe, the astronomer, in a letter to Tuesday's Times, mentions a curious instance of the value of small birds in agriculture:'Thirty-five years ago, a countryman left here for Australia, taking with him all our popular hardy fruits and vegetables; but the produce was yearly destroyed, until the English sparrow was introduced, after which there was plenty of fruit.' Waterton calculated that a single pair of sparrows destroyed as many grubs in one day as would have eaten up half an acre of young corn in a week. The swallows, flycatchers, and other summer birds come too late to destroy the grubs; it is only the native birds, like the sparrow, which really do the necessary work. Frost does not kill these grubs. Even in the severe frost of 1860-61, when the thermometer stood in some places 8 below zero, the grubs were not injured. It is the little birds that are the true under-gardeners, though they do take a certain portion of the produce, by way of wages for their work.
Spectator, 18 January 1879
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