88 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



elusion that were the birds destroyed, a desolation would result, compared with 

 which the grasshopper plague of the West would sink into insignificance. The 

 vocal melody of birds would give place to constant buzzing, scraping, hissing 

 sound of insects, not long, however, to be endured, for the destruction of veg- 

 etation must inevitably be followed by the destruction of animal life. It is 

 evident God designed that the birds should hold the insects in check. Can we 

 afford to dispense with even a part of their assistance because it costs us some- 

 thing in fruit ? We are willing to pay money for fertilizers and for labor. 

 We even pay men for destroying insects, and regard it as a profitable invest- 

 ment. It is unreasonable to demand that the entire work of the birds shall be 

 gratuitous. The tax which nature levies if not paid willingly may increase 

 with time, but can no more be avoided than that levied by the laws of man. 

 Men may sometimes be cheated —nature never. Who can doubt that the vol- 

 untary tax which is now being levied in the interests of humanity upon the 

 people of this country in behalf of the western sufferers, might have been to 

 a great extent avoided by planting forests as homes for the birds on our west- 

 ern plains ? In view of the generous response to the calls of the needy, ought 

 not the following couplet to be changed? 



"Man's inhumanity to man 

 Makes countless millions mourn." 



That it may conform to the professions of modern civilization, and at the same 

 time be more classical, we suggest that it should read : 



Man's inbumanity to birds 

 Makes countless insects buzz. 



The prosperous manufacturer annually recognizes the aid he receives from 

 those in his employ by a Thanksgiving dinner or a holiday gift — this in addi- 

 tion to the regular wages. The birds work "without money and without 

 price," and we begrudge them a holiday in our cherry trees ; or, if after their 

 summer's labors are concluded they assemble in the vineyard to partake of a 

 Thanksgiving dinner and to congra,tulate themselves on the millions of insects 

 destroyed, we meet them with a wa7'm reception of cold lead. 



It is said of the American savage that if he is slow to forget an injury, he 

 never forgets a kindness; but how different with the civilized American ! By 

 him the birds are destroyed while in the act of guarding his property. We 

 seem to remember and cherish those traditions which call forth our combat- 

 iveness, rather than those which develop our better nature. " He shall bruise 

 thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," seems to be remembered rather than 

 the record in the same ancient book of a bird that bore across the wide waste 

 of waters the olive branch of joy and peace. 



The bird's power of flight through the air must be of peculiar interest to 

 man, until, in the march of improvement, those Utopian days shall come when 

 he shall, in imitation of the feathered race, navigate the air with the same con- 

 fidence that he now does the waters. What wonder that the Pantheist should 

 worship birds ! No other class of animals combine such rare beauty, grace, 

 fleetness, endurance, sweetness of song, and skill in architecture. What a 

 marvellous provision of the Creator that creatures which live on the most 

 loathsome, noxious, and disgusting objects should notwithstanding be en- 

 dowed with more points of superiority than any other of the lower animals ! 

 In view of their important mission, has not God endowed them with these 

 wonderful attributes that they might find favor and protection even at the 

 hands of the heedless and unthoughtful ? 



