No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 309 



oughly with the boiled lime-sulfur solution. More and more this 

 material is coming to be recognized as the greatest insecticide and 

 fungicide, as well as germicide, that has ever come to mankind. It 

 is to the credit of the KState of Pennsylvania that we faithfully stood 

 by our convictions in the early recommendations of this material, 

 until now, without exception, every state in the Union, and every 

 civilized country on the face of the earth has come to recognize it 

 and recommend it as the best material to use for destroying pests, 

 whether they be insects or diseases of trees, or the insect pests and 

 disease germs of poultry or livestock, where they can be met by 

 spraying or washing the surroundings with any solution. 



KEPORT OF ORNITHOLOGIST 



By DR. JOSEPH KALBFUS 



Through some misunderstanding and entirely without my know- 

 ledge or consent, it api^ears I have been appointed to a position 

 upon the State Board of Agriculture, that I am entirely unfitted to 

 fill; and while I may know something about the habits of birds and 

 the benefit of their life-work, I am not an ornithologist, and should 

 not be placed in a position wherein 1 am expected to teach what I 

 do not know. And I herewith most respectfully request that another 

 be selected to fill this place. I surrender unconditionall3\ 



In my journey through life, I have, to a limited extent, observed 

 the actions of birds around me. In early life it was my privilege to 

 cross the plains of Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and the territory- 

 north of these points, along the Rocky Mountains, and to there wit- 

 ness the lighting of untold myriads of grasshoppers on vegetation, 

 to the absolute destruction of every growing thing. I have seen the 

 army of birds, including many families and species, at w^ork feed- 

 ing on grasshoppers and know what the birds can do. 



One of the great mistakes made by the majority of our people re- 

 garding birds is that they apparently do not understand that each 

 family, and frequently each species of birds, has its special work to 

 perform, and that Avhile at times perhaps the majority of the 

 feathered tribes may feed upon particular and abundant insects, the 

 most of our birds have a special liking for some peculiar line of 

 food, and confine themselves to this particular food as long as pos- 

 sible. 



We have in Pennsylvania six kinds of common woodpeckers, each 

 kind feeding in the place peculiar to its species. The flicker, one of 

 the largest of this family, is the most terrestrial of the family and 

 takes the most of its food upon the ground. The majority of the food 

 taken by this bird during his stay with us is composed of ants. The 

 ant is the greatest protector of plant lice or aphids, insects that are 

 said to produce their young alive. The ant is said to carry these 



