What Made The Crops Short

IHifjijP JrfliisT Almost evcry eivp iu Franoe, last year, w:s a .short erop. This was alarmiug. - Plenty of sirn, pTonty of rain, plenty of Lard work, anti short crops. What did it mean ? Loaniod men were appoinled . to examine ato lbo matter, aud see vvhy tho wheat and the vines and the olives gave out so. It was a puzzle ; but they foun'd the answot Here it is : Little birds, you sec, are uot sent into the world lor nothin-. Providenco lias SOÜÜÏtiïog for them t do. Birds eat iuseots, ivorms and grubs, and wherc thero are 110 birds these increase t-o [irodigiously, that they eat up all the crops. - The poverty of the Frcnch harvcst, last year, was found to be owing to the ravages of a small worm, which it is the par ticular business cf a certain little bïrd to destroy. Indeed, it is tho little birds that prevent the ravages of insect. - Some biids live cntirely upon them, and the quantity they deslroy is euonnous Others live partly on grubs and partly on grain, but the grain thay takeissuiall eompared with the gond they do. A certiiin insect was fouud to two thousiiud eggs; but a singlo tonitit was found to eat two hundred thousand eggá n year. A swallow dovours about fivo huuilred and forty-three insect.s a day. A sparrow's nest in tho city of Paris coutained sevcn hundred pairs of cockohafer's wiugs, though in a city like Paris a Bparrow might have had bis piek of food. You see therefore how useful birds are to the farmers, and what a harm you aro doing waDtouly to destroy them. The Freuch sportsmen kill, they say, from oce to two hundred birds a day d the sporting season, and it is caleulated that eighty niillions or more of bird's eggs are destroyed yearly. The rosult is that tho little birds of that country are aotually dying out; some kinds have already disapptared, and others are lcsf)cniii; fast. What is the consequence ? Tho crops of Franco have suflered terribly from inseets. Not only grain but the vines, the olives, aud even tbc foresttrees teil the samo tale of mischief, until at leDgth peuple are much frightened about it. Uirds are beginning to bo thought of some consequence in tlic world. They are rising iu the public estimation, aud luws are beiug made to proteet thcir rights to ': to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which consista, I suppnse, not ouly iu givipg the most delightful concerts, but in picking the most delicate grubs ttod the fat test worms. Sonic wise parsjfl s:iid that '' the bird couid live without man, but man cannot livo without the bird " Let the boys rejuember that, and clierisb a frieudly repard for the busy little creatures, that can do ten times moro on tho farm than they can. Indeed I think their usofuh.üff! and industry is a consideratioQ to