Pnye Txcenty-four 



BETTER FRUIT 



June, 1922 



^ow long 

 should a shingle roof last? 



Answer that by another question 

 How much service in a tractor? De- 

 pends largely on the care you take of 

 it. Same for a shingle roof. 



Unless you fill the pores c f the wood 

 with a weather-resisting preservative, 

 natural oils will evaporate, rain will 

 soak in, then shingles will warp and 

 crack under the hot sun and wither- 

 ing winds. 



Oronite Shingle Oil made by 

 Standard Oil Company (California), is 

 easy to apply, and will save your 

 shingle roofs or shingled side- walls 

 many a repair job. A tight, well-laid 

 roof treated with it should last a life- 

 time. 



Our agent near you will tell you the 

 success others have had with Oronite 

 Shingle Oil in securing longer roof 

 life. Ask him, too, for color-mixing 

 formulas. 



STANDARD OIL COMPA^fV 



(California) 



BONITE 



SHINGLE OIL 



of the crow no bird has been subject to 

 so much criticism as he. When he is seen 

 scrambling over fruit trees and his hole 

 is found in the bark it is concluded that 

 he is doing harm. The woodpecker obtains 

 a large part of his food from the trees. 

 Most birds must get their insect food from 

 the air or the surface of the bark, but the 

 woodpecker is able to get many larva and 

 grubs beneath the bark. He is able to 

 locate his hidden prey with great accuracy 

 and often cuts small holes directly to the 

 burrows of the grubs. He rarely disfigures 

 a tree that is healthy, but when he finds a 

 tree infested with wood-boring larvae, he 

 locates the insects accurately, draws them 

 out and devours them. 



Among the smaller woodpeckers are the 

 hairy and downy. Both of these are birds 

 from which the prchardist and forester 

 have nothing to fear and much to gain. 

 The number of useful insects which they 

 eat is insignificant, while the number of 

 destructive larva they destroy must have 

 a very great effect in reducing the number 

 of pests. More than three-fourths of the 

 food of these birds consists of animal 

 matter and less than one-fourth is fruit 

 and this mostly wild. This ratio is main- 

 tained very closely the year around. 



1 



THE most persecuted of all our birds 

 are the hawks and owls. Because a 

 few of them are destructive, all are con- 

 sidered such. All may be divided into 

 three classes. Those most beneficial, in- 

 clude the marsh hawk, red-tailed hawk, 

 red-shouldered hawk, and sparrow hawk. 

 Those in which the harmful and beneficial 

 qualities balance are the golden eagle, bald 

 eagle, pigeon hawk, prairie falcon and great 

 horned owl. Those of the harmful class, 

 include the duck hawk, sharp-shinned hawk 

 and Cooper's hawk. 



The food of the marsh hawk is quite 

 largely small quadrupeds, although in some 

 localities it may include birds. An aver- 

 age pair, in rearing their young, would 

 destroy in the neighborhood of 1000 

 mice during the nesting period. How 

 much would an orchardist give if he knew 

 so large a number of mice were to be 

 destroyed in his orchard? 



A campaign of education teaching the 

 difference between the good and bad birds 

 of the hawk family is having its effects, 

 .md agriculturists are realizing that but few 

 birds of prey are more harmful than bene- 

 ficial. It is the opinion of many that there 

 are only three hawks deserving to be 

 destroyed — the sharp-shinned, Cooper's and 

 Gos hawk. There are a few others that 

 acquire a taste for poultry and it may be 

 necessary to eliminate a particular indivi- 

 dual occasionally, but the wholesale destruc- 

 tion of hawks brings punishment by an 

 increase of quadruped and insect pests. 



Among the owls the common screech 

 owl is probably best known. A consider- 

 able number of them make their homes in 

 the orchards, and the man who is so for- 



