TRANSACTIONS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OP NORTHERN ILL. 23^ 



of this great interest in our State, the scope is greatly widened, and indi- 

 vidual interests must be massed, and aggregate results must be taken as 

 the leading criteria of future action. If I rightly understand the object 

 in view in forming these societies, holding meetings and discussing topics, 

 it is not simply to hear theories, read essays and discuss propositions, but 

 to elicit facts and experiences, and by comparing and weighing these, 

 reach results which, by being put into practice, may prove beneficial to 

 horticulture, and advance the general welfare and interest of the fruit- 

 growers and gardeners of Illinois. 



If, therefore, actual facts and observations should show that, although 

 the five or six birds heretofore named annually destroy on an average 

 ^1,000 worth of grapes and cherries in Illinois, but by their destruction 

 the horticulturists lose $10,000, from an increase of insects; what, I 

 ask, must be the verdict of this Society in reference to these birds? 

 Beyond (^oubt that they should be preserved. 



But the welfare of horticulture alone should not form the boundary 

 of your vision in viewing this question ; the great agricultural interests 

 of the entire State must be considered, and the ultimate result of any 

 plan, theory or action, upon this great industry as a whole, should be the 

 criterion by which the value thereof is to be determined. This bird 

 question is one which is to be considered not merely with reference to 

 one specialty of horticulture, nor even with reference to horticulture 

 alone, but in view of its general bearing upon agriculture in its broad 

 sense. It is wholly a mistaken idea that it is an individual matter, unless 

 it can be shown that the act of one person in reference thereto has no 

 effect upon his neighbor. It is also a mistaken idea, which is entertained 

 by many, that the owner of the soil has a perfect right to treat as he pleases 

 the birds which fly over it or alight upon it ; and it is time the agriculturists 

 of our State attack this problem bravely, and with a determination to settle 

 it on the broad principle of its relation to the public good. 



If Mr. A., by killing the birds which injure his grapes, turns loose a 

 host of injurious insects upon his neighbor gardener on the one side, 

 nurseryman on the other, and adjacent farm of another, causing ten-fold 

 the loss to them that he saves to himself, public policy can no more 

 justify it than the raising of Canada thistles by one for a profit, at the 

 expense of all the surrounding farmers. Even admitting that such birds 

 as have been mentioned do not compensate in other respects for the injury 

 they do to the grapes, cherries and strawberries, and that their slaughter 

 will be justified on this account, there is still another point to be consid- 

 ered before the question is fully settled. The usual method of killing is 

 with the shot-gun, and consequently the killing of a dozen obnoxious 

 birds usually frightens away ten times that number of beneficial ones. 



But, without further arguing this point, I appeal to this Society to 

 look at this subject in its broad aspect ; and, with a faint hope of induc- 

 ing the members to consider the matter in this light, I now present some 

 reasons and facts bearing upon this general view. 



It has been well said by De Tschadi, President Agl. Soc, St. Gall, 

 Switzerland: "Birds are nature's soldiers, and keep in subjection the 



