Winter Meeting. 349 



BIRDS AND AGRICULTURE. 



(By August Reese, Secretary Audubon Society, 2516 N. Fourteenth 



Street, St. Louis, Mo.) 



The important part that birds play in nature's economies, their re- 

 lation to the Agricultural interests and the benefit mankind derives from 

 their unremitting industry, has never received any manifest consideration 

 from the- public until within the past few years. That branch of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, the Biological Survey, which 

 deals with this subject has accomplished great achievements for the en- 

 lightenment of the people on this all-important question, and is publish- 

 ing pamphlets free for distribution, containing a wealth of information 

 which ought to receive close attention, at least from those interested in 

 Agricultural pursuits. 



Statistics prove that bird life has decreased at the alarming rate of 

 nearly 50 per cent, within the past fifteen years. The increase in noxious 

 insects and its fatal efifect on Agriculture has been in proportion to the 

 decrease of birds. Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief Entomologit of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, estimates that we pay annually $300,- 

 000,000 tribute to the insects and bugs, or one-tenth of all Agricultural 

 products. Reports from all part of the country of the ravages of the 

 Gypsy moth, grasshoppers, army worms, etc., are becoming more fre- 

 quent and more appalling as years roll by. 



The inestimable value of bird life to Agriculturalists can not be bet- 

 ter illustrated than by the following report from the "Food of Nestling 

 Birds," issued by the Department of Agriculture: 



"Prof. Sam Aughey saw a marsh wren carry 30 locusts to her young 

 in an hour. At this rate for seven hours a day, a brood would consume 

 210 locust per day, and the passerine birds of the eastern half of Nebras- 

 ka, allowing only 20 broods to the square mile, would destroy daily 162,- 

 771,000 of the pests. The average locust weights about 15 grains, and is 

 capable each day of consuming its own weight of standing forage crops, 

 corn and wheat. 



This case may serve as an illustration of the vast good that is done 

 every year by the destruction of insect pests fed to nestling birds. And 

 it should be remembered that the nesting season is also that when the 

 destruction of injurious insects is most needed, that is, at the period of 

 greatest Agricultural activity. The encouragement of birds to nest on 

 the farm is therefore more than mere matters of sentiment, they return 



