The Means of Utilizing Birds in Horticulture 



AFany ]jeoi)Ie have absorbed tlic itlea that liirds were 

 created to protect the crops from insect pests, but the 

 relations of birds, insects and other forms of animal life 

 are not quite so simple as this belief would indicate. No 

 man, according to an address made by Edw. H. Forbush 

 before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, yet is 

 wise enough to understand fully the marvellous relations 

 and interdependences existing between the various forms 

 of animal and vegetable life, but we know that there exist 

 between vegetation, insects and birds what may be termed, 

 for want of a lietter word, primeval economic relations, 

 a sort of dependence one upon another ; the existence of 

 each one depending upon the existence of the others. 



Birds perform the function of an aerial police force, 

 because they are the best fitted of all the forms of animal 

 life to concentrate quickly on any unusual irruption of 

 insects or other lesser animals. Such an influence, work- 

 ing thus upon destructive or potentially destructive pests 

 must of necessity have a beneficient relation to agricul- 

 tural industries. Birds have a marvellous capacity for 

 destroying pests. They are wonderfully active and tre- 

 mendously energetic and the resultant great and constant 

 wasting of the tissues calls for exceedingly rapid renewal. 

 Constant fuel is required to keep the vital fires lirightly 

 burning. Hence, birds require an enormous c|uantity of 

 food. 



The late Chester A. Reed, author of "Bird Guide," 

 regarded one hundred insects as the average number 

 eaten by each individual insectivorous bird daily. He 

 estimated by an ingenious calculation that two billion 

 five hundred and sixty million (2,560,000,000) insects or 

 twenty-one thousand (21,000) bushels are eaten daily 

 by the birds of Massachusetts. I believe it was Professor 

 Lawrence Bruner who estimated that the birds of Ne- 

 braska, a much larger State, ate one hundred and seventy 

 carloads in a day. When we consider that a very large 

 proportion of the insects are injurious, or would become 

 injurious, to crops or trees if not held in check, we can 

 see the advantage of increasing and fostering bird life. 

 ^^'e may even reduce some of these benefits to the com- 

 mon standard of. dollars and cents. 



I hold in my hand a document, containing a message 

 of the President to Congress, transmitting a report of the 

 biological survey of the Department of Agriculture, in 

 which it is stated that a single species of hawk saves the 

 farmers $175,000 yearly l)y destroying grasshoj)pers and 

 field mice ; and that the native sparrows of the United 

 States save to the agriculturists $35,000,000 yearly by 

 destroying weed seeds. Professor F. E. L. Ileal of the 

 Department of Agriculture has made a careful study 

 which seems to show that each pair of meadow larks is 

 worth at least $4 a year to the farmer, because of the 

 grass they save by the destruction of insect pests. A 

 friend in Bristol County, having carefully studied the 

 work of the bob-white or quail is satisfied that each pair 

 on his farm is worth $5 a year to him, because of the 

 potato beetles and other insects the\- destroy. 



I'.irds are of greater potential value in the field and 

 forest than in orchard or garden. Insecticides and other 

 means may be used to control certain pests, but we can- 

 not spray with poisonous showers the grass which horses 

 and cattle eat, nor can we spray all the trees in all the 

 woods. We are absolutely dependent on the birds and 



other natural enemies of insects to i)rotect the trees and 

 the grass crops of the country from insect pest.s. Wher- 

 ever birds e.xist in normal number, they perform this 

 office well except where some foreign pest has been intro- 

 duced which they are not accustomed to. 



Something, however, may be done to utilize Iiirds in 

 horticulture and fruit growing, for there are many in- 

 jurious insects that cannot be reached by ar.senical spray- 

 ing. Some which are readily destroyed by birds cannot 

 be controlled by any practicable mechanical means now 

 known. Birds, if attracted to an orchard in numbers, are 

 very destructive to the principal leaf-eating insects, such 

 as the tent caterpillar and the canker worms, the codling 

 moth and, in less degree, to tlie gypsy and the brown-tail 

 moth which our birds do not yet fully understand, al- 

 though about fifty species are known to feed on one or 

 both. Such insects can be controlled by spraying, but 

 there are many insects which feed under the bark or in 

 the wood, destroying the tree, which cannot be reached 

 by spraying, for e.xample, the introduced leopard moth. 

 Fruit growers know how dangerous a pest it is, but there 

 is little fear that there will be any great loss from this 

 insect in the country at large, provided we are able to 

 foster and increase the stock of native insectivorous birds. 

 Nuthatches save the orcbardist thousands of dollars in 

 one season. 



The principal means of utilizing birds in horticulture 

 are to attract them to the spots where they are needed 

 and to protect them there and, if possible, increase their 

 numbers. Owls are among the most beneficial of all birds 

 because they destroy mice and nocturnal' insects, particu- 

 larly field mice, which are very destrucive to trees and 

 crops. All European writers who have obsei-vcd the 

 habits of the owls agree that they are wonderfully useful 

 in this respect. Our larger species, such as the great 

 horned owl and the barred owl sometimes molest poultry 

 and game, but the smaller species almost never pursue 

 fowls or pigeons except when driven by stress of weather 

 and starvation. The screech owl may often l)e induced 

 to make its home on a farm by putting up a nesting box 

 for its accommodations. A box twelve inches square 

 and fifteen inches high with an entrance near the top 

 four inches by five would be ample for a family of screech 

 owls, and such a box as this was chosen by a pair of 

 screech owls near my orchard. In this they reared their 

 young and while there destro\ed all the mice about the 

 place. 



In conserving small birds, it is well, so far as [lossible, 

 to secure the services of their natural protectors. King- 

 birds, while quarrelsome, act as protectors to other small' 

 birds by driving away crows and hawks. Kingbirds may 

 often be induced to nest in the orchard by hanging on 

 branches or fences a plentiful supply of cotton string cut 

 in lengths of one foot. This sometimes will induce orioles 

 to nest. Martins also drive away hawks. 



Some few experiments have been made with birds iir 

 greenhouses by introducing them there as protectors of 

 the plants. In one such case, some juncos and tree spar- 

 rows, shut in a greenhouse in the fall and kept there dur- 

 ing the winter, absolutely destroyed a pest of plant lice. 

 Hummingbirds are serviceable among flowering plants, 

 not only because, like the bees, they distribute pollen, but 

 also for the rea.son that they feed on many of the minute 

 insects of the plants and flowers, some of which may be 

 too small to escape the notice of other birds, rimnmers 

 may be reariiiy attracted by planting bee balm, honey- 

 suckle, or almost any deep, bell-sliaped flower. 



