108 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



tectors that had been put about the trees to prevent the rav- 

 ages of insects. These caterpillars are like the canker- 

 worm. The female has no wings, but climbs up the tree, and 

 these protectors are put around the trees to prevent them 

 from going up. On Somerset street, in Boston, the leaves of 

 the horse-chestnut trees, for two or three seasons, have l)een 

 entirely eaten off by caterpillars. The result has been, that 

 several of those trees, which formerly bloomed in the spring, 

 now bloom in the autumn. I have noticed that for several 

 summers. In this regard, it has the same effect that the 

 canker-worm has had upon the Baldwin apple trees, where 

 the bearing year has been changed from the even to the odd 

 year. 



Mr. Sedgwick. Is it not a fact that our singing birds seek 

 the protection of man, and breed better in the foliage around 

 our houses than they do in the woods ? My place is sur- 

 rounded with shrubbery, and we have a good many song- 

 birds, but I have often noticed, when I go into the woods, 

 that I hear but very few, except the jay. You see no robins 

 in the woods, but around houses you notice them, and you 

 notice other song-birds. I have never seen it stated, but is it 

 not a fact that wliere the birds are protected around our 

 houses, they increase, instead of in the woods ? 



Prof. Stearns. I think that is so. I think that the insect- 

 eating birds, as a rule, are protected. I think that they do 

 seek man's protection. There are two classes of insect eating 

 birds, one of which seeks man's protection, and the other is 

 found in the forest, and does not seek man's protection. One 

 of the most exquisite songsters that we have is the solitary 

 vireo, and that bird is found only in the very depths of the 

 wood. But it is not the rule that the singing birds are found 

 in the woods. 



Mr. . One gentleman (Mr. Wetherell) has sug- 

 gested that the change of the bearing year, in the case of the 

 Baldwin apple, from the even to tlie odd year, was caused by 

 the fact that the canker-worms had eaten the leaves from the 

 trees. Is there any reason why the ravages of the canker- 



