98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



about the utility of importing that bird. I will not call it 

 any name, because I do not want to beg the question. 



Prof. Stearns. That is rather. a hard question to answer. 

 In the first place, a recent document from the public printing 

 office in Washington, of about four hundred pages, discusses 

 , this same question, and it has been discussed in other books 

 to nearly the same extent. It is rather a hard question to 

 answer off-hand, and I will not attempt to answer it perfectly ; 

 but I think the balance is against the bird. I know that the 

 English sparrow has driven away other birds at times, and I 

 also know that it does a great deal of good. On Boston Com- 

 mon, for instance, since these birds were imported, the elms 

 have continued to grow and thrive, and are the most beauti- 

 ful trees on the common ; there is very little trouble in re- 

 gard to the worms. But in Australia, they are considered 

 such a nuisance that there is a bounty of twelve cents a head 

 upon them. 



Mr. Wetherell. Our friend, I believe, resides in Am- 

 herst ; I i-eside in Boston ; and I want to say in regard to 

 what he has said about the elms on Boston Common, that if 

 he had been in Boston in August, when those trees were 

 nearly covered with the cocoons of the caterpiller, I think he 

 would have modified his remarks touching that subject. 



Prof. Stearns. I stand corrected, sir. 



Mr. Wetherell. I want to say, further, that when I went 

 to Boston to reside, in 1856, the common was frequented by 

 many fine species of birds, to which reference has been made 

 so pleasantly by the speaker. Nearly all of those birds that 

 then frequented the common have been driven away. I think 

 the English sparrows are the greatest pests and nuisances that 

 it is possible to conceive. I don't wonder it took a 400 page 

 volume to defend them. Whether it proceeded from the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington or not, I cannot 

 say, but I should think it would take more than four hundred 

 pages to defend that bird from the shot-gun of every man 

 who loves the useful birds. I think it has driven away the 

 other birds from Boston Common. On the street where I 



