104 Mr. J. Bucklaiid on 



bceome an efficient all}" of man in protecting the artificially 

 produced fruit from the attacks of the numerous insects that 

 are drawn to the orchard by a vastly increased quantity of fruit 

 of a vastly better quality than the natural product. 



For all that, fruit-growers are largely indebted to the bird 

 for a great part of their annual crop. There are a host of 

 tiny creatures that are not affected by spraying. These 

 lilliputian pests are the plant lice and their allies, bark lice 

 and scale insects. Usually their presence is unnoticed on 

 account of their diminutive size ; but they suck out the 

 juices of the tree and are exceedingly harmful. If their 

 multiplication remained unchecked, the ultimate result upon 

 the development of the fruit, if not upon the life of the tree, 

 would be very great. But nothing, however small, escapes 

 the prying eyes of a bird, and it clears the trunk, branches, 

 and twigs of the tree of these encumbrances. 



Birds are charged, as though the case were one of theft, 

 with feeding to a greater or less extent on the fruit which 

 they help to produce. In Nature, such services as the 

 bird renders in direct protection of the fruit is placed to its 

 credit and it receives its reward. Does man expect it, for 

 his sake, to deviate from those habits which it has con- 

 tracted under natural conditions? In other words, does 

 he expect the bird to assist him in producing an unnatural 

 surplus of fruit ? 



Call the bird in the orchard an evil — if you will. But it 

 is a necessary evil, and the fruit-grower must make up his 

 mind to pay the bird its wages, even though at times they 

 may seem exorbitant. 



But let us suppose for a moment — though the supposition 

 is absurd — that the modern fruit-grower conld do Mithout 

 the services of the bird. Would that give him a right to 

 slay it? Apart altogether from the agriculturist, what of the 

 millions of people who, as an increment to their ordinary 

 livelihood, grow fruit, but who cannot afford either the time 

 or the money to treat their trees in the most approved and 

 scientific way ? 



"What would happen to this poorer class of fruit-growers 



