202 



MASSACHUSETTS AGKICULTUEE. 



There are about thirty species of insects which subsist on 

 our garden-vegetables. The grape-vine has about fifty insect- 

 enemies ; the apple-tree seventy- 

 five ; our difierent shade-trees some 

 over a hundred ; wheat and other 

 grains fifty. The crop of wheat in 

 the State of Illinois was injured by 

 insects in one year to the estimated 

 amount of seventy-three millions 

 of dollars. The estimated annual 

 destruction of property by insects 

 in the United States is as high as 

 four hundred million dollars. The 

 eftect of this loss is felt not alone 

 ' by the farmer. It is to this in a 

 large measure that many poor men 



Fig. 16.— Upper fig. Snow-bird. Jnnco OWO tlicir pOVCrty ; tO tMs mUSt 

 hyemalis. Lower fig. Song-sparrow. •^ i i i • i • /• 



Meiospiea meiodia. \)q attributed the high prico of 



farm-produce and all healthy food, and the consequent in- 

 crease of disease and want in our large cities. We do not 

 hesitate to say that at least one-eighth of this loss by insects 

 might be prevented by the careful protection and encourage- 

 ment of birds ; or to put it in another way, the carelessness of 

 the people of the United States in this respect costs them at 



least fifty million dollars 

 yearly, beside much un- 

 happiness and suflering. 



HOW TO PROTECT BIRDS. 



Of the measures for the 

 protection of birds, per- 

 haps the most important 

 is the bird law of Mas- 

 sachusetts, a digest of 



Fig. 17.— Baltimore Oriole. Icterus Baltimore. which WC append for Con- 

 venient reference : Whoever takes, or kills, sells, buys or has 

 in his possession between January 1 and August 15, any 

 woodcock ; between February 1 and September 1 , any ruffed 

 grouse or partridge; between April 1, 1869, and November 

 1, 1872, any quail or Virginia partridge; between March 1 



