INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 44T 



twenty cents to the justice or notary taking the affidavit. By virtue of 

 tills act about $00,000 has heen paid in bounties during tlio year and a half 

 which has elapsed since the law went into effect. This represents the 

 destruction of at least 128,571 of the above mentioned animals, most of 

 which are hawlvs and owls. 



"Granting that 5.000 chickens are killed annually in rennsylvania by 

 hawks and owls and that they are worth twentj'-five cents each (a liberal 

 estimate in view of the fact that a large proportion of them are killed 

 while very young) the total loss Avould be $1,250, and the poultry killed 

 in a year and a half would be worth $1,875. Hence, it appears that dur- 

 ing the past eighteen months the state of Pennsylvania has expended 

 $90,000 to save its farmers a loss of $1,875. But this estimate by no 

 means represents the actual loss to the farmer and the taxpayer of the 

 State. It is within bounds to say that in the course of a year every hawk 

 and owl destroys at least a thousand mice or their equivalent in insects, 

 and that each mouse or its equivalent so destroyed would cause the farmer 

 a loss of two cents per annum. Therefore, omitting all reference to the 

 enormous increase in the number of these noxious animals when nature's 

 means of holding them in check has beeu removed, the lowe.st possible 

 estimate of the value to the farmer of each hawk, owl and weasel would 

 be $20 a year or $30 in the year an a half. Hence, in addition to the 

 $90,000 actually expended by "the State in destroying its benefactors, it 

 has incurred a loss to its agricultural interests of at least three millions 

 eight hundred and fifty-seven thousand, one hundred and thirty dollars, 

 or a total loss of $3,947,130 in a year and a half." Mr. Chapman continues: 

 "To their credit be it said, the legislators of Pennsylvania were not slow 

 to recognize the error which a lack of proper information had caused ihem 

 to make, and that ruinous and absurd law was repealed." These investi- 

 gations, beginning in 1885. have been continued to the present time, the 

 results have been published from time to time, and now no horticulturist 

 need lack the material upon which to base a judgment of the value of 

 anj' given bird. 



The report that roused the sorrowful indignation of the millinery 

 editor to whom I have made reference. I found in the year book of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 1808. "Soil culture may be said 

 to be an everlasting war against weeds. A weed is a plant out of place: 

 certain plants seemed to have formed the habit of constantly getting out 

 of place. A single jilant of one of these species would, if unchecked, pro- 

 duce in the spring of the third year ten billion plants. 



Fortimately, certain agents are at work to check this harvest and per- 

 haps the most efficient among them are the seed eating birds. 



Each fall and winter they flock in myriads to agricultural districts 

 and live ui on the ripened seed of weeds. 



Prof. P.e!il, who ha.s carefully studied this subject in tlie upper Mis- 

 sissi|i|)i N'.iUty li.is estimated the amount of weed seed eaten by the tree 



