Page:Natural history of the farm.djvu/26

doubt it? Their tastes have a wider range than ours. Waxwings like cedar berries, and crows eat freely the fruit of poison ivy. The close-growing habit of wild bush fruits gives congenial shelter and nesting sites, also, to many of the smaller birds.

From all the foregoing it should appear that a little study of the natural history of the wild fruits in any locality will reveal much concerning the origin and the environing conditions of one of our valuable resources.

Study 2. Edible Wild Fruits Program — The first part of this study is a comparative examination of the wild fruits of the farm. The fruits are to be sought in nature, examined carefully one at a time, and their characters are to be written in the columns of a table prepared with headings as indicated in pp. 20 and 21. The fruits named in the first column are those commonly found about Ithaca, N. Y., in autumn. Earlier in the season, or in another region, the list would be very different.

The second part of this study is a comparison of individuals of one kind of wild fruit, such as hawthorns, wild grape, or any other that is abundant, with a view to discovering natural varieties. Half a dozen or more selected trees, bearing number-labels, 1, 2, 3, etc., should have their fruits carefully compared as to (1) quality of flesh (as tested by palatability at this date); (2) proportion of edible pulp (as compared with seeds, skin and other waste) ; (3) earliness; (4) size and form; (5) productiveness; (6) immunity from fungus and insects, as evidenced by the cleanness of the fruit inside and

Fig. 6. The larvae of three common fruit insects: (a) the plum-curculio; (b) the codling moth; (c) the cherry fruit-fly.