STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II 



tribution and exorbitant profits. Some of us feel that business 

 men and business men's organizations might help this situation. 

 If not, then the farmer must organize his own machinery of 

 distribution for the handling of this important product of the 

 farm. And it is a source of congratulation to the farmers of 

 Maine that this movement has begun. It was a very happy 

 thought last year, my friends, when the members of this society 

 elected as its president, the president of Che first fruit growers' 

 association in Maine engaged in the business of distributing 

 their own product. We are looking very hopefully to that 

 association and to others that have been organized since. In 

 closing, I will say that we certainly appreciate the courtesies 

 already extended and the plans that have been made for our 

 comfort during the few days we shall remain in this city as 

 her guests, and I hope that the eiTect of this meeting upon the 

 fruit industry of this section of the state will be immediate, 

 helpful and lasting. 



OUR FRIENDS THE BIRDS. 



Dr. Edward Howe Forbush, State Ornithologist, Boston, Mass. 



(Illustrated Lecture.) 



Recent agitation for the protection of birds has resulted in 

 bringing home to the people the fact that birds are of some 

 service to mankind. Many people have absorbed the idea that 

 birds were created to protect man's gardens, trees and crop* 

 from in«ect pests. This is not the fact. When birds were 

 created there were no shade trees, no orchards, and no gardens 

 to be protected from such pests. The relations of birds, insects, 

 and other forms of animal life are not quite so simple as thi«s 

 belief would indicate. No man is wise enough to understand 

 fully the marvelous ilnterrelations and interdependencies exist- 

 ing between the various forms of animal life, but we know 

 that there exist between vegetation, insects, birds, and other 

 animals, what may be termed primeral economic relations, a 

 sort of dependence one upon another. The existence of each 

 one, and the place that it fills in the econtomy of nature, depend 

 largely upon the existence of the others and the fulfilment oif 



