CEXTRALIA FfiUIT-GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 341 



amoufj the first ill market, ni;iy, in most seasons, make tomatoes pay, lint that even then tliere are 

 but few crops that pay so small an interest on the time and capital invested. That the business has 

 been overdone for the past year or two, is certainly true, but the principle reason of lailure to pay 

 lies in the want of an outlet for the bulk of our crop; that which matiii'es too late for profitable ship- 

 ping purposes. This can be supplied by a ,t;ood caniiiu};- establishment; and as the want is not con- 

 lined to the tomato, but extends to all of our small fruits and most vegetables, we are confident that 

 success from the start will attend the tirst enterprise of this kind, which may be establislieil in Alton 

 or vicinity. 



CENTRALIA FEUIT-GEO WEES' ASSOCIATION^. 



BIRDS. 



The time of the meethig was pretty much occupied by Messrs. Reeder and Ilooton 

 iu a further discussion of the bird question; these gentlemen, by general consent, 

 fighting- it out good-naturedly, each on his own line. They both came well prepared 

 with ammunition, and the controversy was animated, interesting, and instructive. 



Mr. Reeder hoped that by this time his friend, Dr. Hooton, was prepared to dis- 

 cuss the subject of birds in a cool and impartial manner; that he would take a broader 

 and more comprehensive position, and acknowledge the subject has two side^--that 

 one bird does not make a sununer. As the Doctor seemed so bitter against the wood- 

 pecker, the speaker would endeavor to show that that bird has some friends as good 

 as the best. Mr. Reeder then proceeded at some length, giving quotations from vari- 

 ous w^ell-known writers, showing the great amount of good accomplished for fruit- 

 growers and farmers by the wood-pecker. The testimony in favor of the bird was 

 very strong and highly interesting. The speaker mentioned a few other birds that 

 were usefitl aids to the fruit-grower and to the general economy of animal and vege- 

 table lite. The prairie warbler, says one author, is a small bird that creeps and flits 

 among the grass and foliage with a quick and jerking movement; its nest is partiahy 

 made of caterpillars' silk. Swallows are noted for feeding on insects, and they touch 

 no fruit. The same may be said of the whippoorwill. The house wren should be 

 protected for a similar reason. The English sparrow has lately been introduced into 

 the East in hopes that he would be of much service in destroying insects. They are 

 now in the New York city parks. A speaker in the Farmers' Club, New York, in 

 answer to an interrogatory, says these little fellows (the sparrows) may be seen any 

 pleasant morning in summer chasing down white millers and yellow millers, and con- 

 suming them. Great relief has been found from their advent. A general improve- 

 ment in this respect will be found when our birds, especially the bltie jay, robins and 

 cat-birds are never molested and shot. Michelet, a celebrated French author of a 

 great work on birds, says: ''A man coidd not live without the birds, which alone 

 could save him from the insect and the reptile; but the Tnrds had lived without man." 

 It is authenticated that one female moth produces 10,000,000 caterpillars in one year. 

 Dr. Hitchcock enumerates 25,000 species of insects in Massachusetts alone. Bradley 

 says a pair of sparrows will destroy 3,300 insects for a week's supplies. Wilson says 



