No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 453 



farm up in Bradford county that came to me through inheritance — my 

 wife's part owner; it is my unfortunate problem to run it. I get 

 about 2^ cents for the cream that is found on a quart of milk. I 

 get the skim milk back sometimes, sometimes some other fellow gets 

 it, and it is not fair to the producer and there is no use to beat around 

 the bush; you are here to do something to better conditions, to bet- 

 ter your own condition and to better the farmers' conditions in this 

 State, and the sooner we consider these things, the better it will be 

 for all of us. 



My article here is entitled, "Who is neighbor to the birds?" It is 

 well enough for the farmers to talk about what they are doing for 

 the birds, but when you come right down to the proposition of what 

 you have really done, it is nothing. The fact that a farmer permits 

 a covey of quail to feed on his land, that is, that he don't chase them 

 off, is one thing, but to do something for them in the time of need is 

 another thing. Our quail in this State are almost gone. I have 

 been trying in the past number of months to secure quail from Mexico. 

 I sent an agent to Mexico at the expense of the sportsmen ; I expected 

 to have introduced in the State at least ten or twelve thousand or 

 more quail; day before yesterday I got a wire from Washington 

 stopping the shipment of quail because they had a disease called Coxi- 

 dosis, that is extremely contagious and almost always fatal. I had 

 one importation of about 175 come in to New York about four 

 weeks ago; there's 16 of them alive to-day. I had another importa- 

 tion that came in three days ago, and 77 of those died the first day. 

 The intestines are covered with ulcers and the liver with white bloches 

 that is infectious to the extreme with quail. It does not apparently 

 affect other birds, and the time has come, as I said in my last report 

 to the Commission, that if we are going to preserve the quail, there 

 must be a closed season, and that does not mean simply that the farm- 

 ers are going to go along as they have done; the farmers are the 

 ones that are really interested, and I am going to touch on this sub- 

 ject in this paper. 



I am going to just stop a minute to say that it is not the quantity 

 of birds we have ; it is the variety of birds, each doing a work for the 

 farmer in its special place, in its own peculiar way that the other 

 birds cannot do, something that means something to every one of 

 us. The wren, the robin, the different birds doing their own work; 

 the robin in the Springtime taking insects and the larvae of insects 

 chilled in the furrow, doing something that saves the farmer incalu- 

 lable cost. Yet the minute the cherries begin to turn or his berries 

 begin to get ripe and the robin comes to get a little something, he is 

 out to soak him. The laborer, being worthy of his hire, ought to be 

 considered with reference to the bird. I know it is aggravating to 

 have your strawberries or cherries picked, but the robin is doing some- 

 thing for you in his place that, if he did not do it, no other bird would. 



30 



