TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 127 



ment there as we do here. It seems to me that this is a question for the 

 people of the state. The importation of the disease or insect is all right 

 for the government to interfere with, but the question still rests with us 

 here, to know whether we can apply, in the other matter, to the general 

 government or to the state. 



Mr. Keid: I do not assume to be a lawyer, but it is a well-known fact 

 that congress has the right to regulate interstate commerce, and so far as 

 the inspection of these nurseries is concerned, before the stock is shipped 

 from state to state, it would seem that in that instance, at least, there can 

 be no possible doubt. 



Mr. Thomas: So far as nursery stock is concerned, it becomes an inter- 

 state question of immense proportions, but so far as concerns the local 

 insects, that might be another question. 



BIRDS AND HORTICULTURE. 



BY PROP. WALTER B. BARROWS, MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



The relation of birds to horticulture is a many-sided one. There is a 

 practical side and a theoretic, a common-sense view (dollars and cents) 

 and an aesthetic side, one based on a sense of the beauty, grace, music, and 

 companionship of birds. The latter side is by many a man tersely 

 described as "stuff," "bosh," "nonsense," "sentiment," and so on, and the 

 proper treatment of garden and orchard birds during fruit season is said 

 to be powder and shot in liberal doses and at frequent intervals until all 

 the symptoms disappear. 



But I am not willing to believe that such a view of the matter is the 

 common one, even among the fruitgrowers who suffer most severely. The 

 successful horticulturist is successful mainly because he is thoughtful 

 and far-sighted, and men of that kind do not ignore or belittle such things 

 as beauty, grace, and companionship, whether they are shown by men and 

 women or by birds. Of course, there are unfortunates everywhere, whose 

 crops have been small (perhaps through no fault of their own), and they 

 can not bear 1o see the birds with full crops, especially when their own 

 fruits are levied on for any part of the filling. But the majority of fruit- 

 growers are reasonable men who keep their eyes open, and so learn some- 

 thing new once in awhile — or perhaps twice in awhile! Such men recog- 

 nize the desirability of birds about their houses and grounds, and honestly 

 regret the necf ssity which compels them from time to time to wage war 

 upon them. To such men the bird-lover can appeal with a certainty that 

 his arguments will be fairly considered, and to such a body of men I feel 

 sure I am speaking today. 



Do not for a moment imagine that I shall attempt to justify the thefts 

 of fruit by robins, cherry-birds, catbirds, and orioles. A robbery is a rob- 

 bery, and though we may take the loss philosophically, and even assure 

 ourselves that we do not mind what we can not help, yet after all we know 

 that the grapes are not all sour, and we can not help calling the birds 



