OUR BIRDS FROil AX ECONOMIC STANDPOINT. 357 



of careful study of that bird's feeding habits is necessary before 

 judging him. Furthermore, a bird which may do considerable in- 

 jury one season may at another or under different conditions do 

 much good. For example, a bird which in a prairie country does not 

 find its favorite food in abundance and is there reduced to feeding 

 upon the products of the garden, may in other situations be entirely 

 harmless or even decidedly beneficial. As an example of how easily 

 we may be deceived in our judgment of birds. I recall the fact of a 

 farmer who suspected some crows and blackbirds in his recently 

 sown fields of injuring the prospects of his crop and caused many 

 to be shot. Imagine his surprise when an examination of their 

 stomachs disclosed the fact that they were feeding upon grubs dis- 

 turbed by the plow and harrow. As another example of how we 

 nay be misled, one sometimes sees woodpeckers storing acorns in 

 'elegraph poles and in holes in trees. We are not to suppose from 

 rhis that the woodpeckers eat acorns, for should we care to notice 

 we should find each one to be infested with a worm or larvae not yet 

 fully grown which will furnish a choice morsel for the bird later on. 



I believe it may be assumed as an established fact that a bird's 

 usefulness to the fruit raiser or berry raiser or farmer is directly 

 dependent upon the location of its nest, whether it is in close proxim- 

 ity to or at a distance from the farm. 



Some recent work in Nebraska along this line gives some sur- 

 prising facts. As a result of a single day's feeding, ''the stomachs 

 of four chickadees contained 1,028 eggs of canker worms. Four 

 others contained about 600 eggs and 105 mature females of the same 

 insect. The stomach of a single quail contained loi potato beetles, 

 and that of another upwards of 500 chinch bugs. A yellow-billed 

 cuckoo shot at 6 a. m. contained forty-three tent caterpillars. A 

 robin had eaten 175 larvae of Bibio, which feed on the roots of 

 grasses." 



The remedy for overstocked markets and low prices for fruits is to offer 

 for sale only choice fruit. You can't overstock a big market with choice vari- 

 eties carefully selected and neatly packed. Then if the price declines, cull 

 and pack still more carefully, and the prices will go up again. 



The Annual Growth of Trees. — In planting trees for forestry purposes 

 it is best to consider the average annual growth which they make. The 

 majority of trees will have room to develop into good timber if allowed to 

 stand 16x16 feet, or 170 to the acre. The Catalpa speciosa, which increases 

 I inch in thickness each year if reasonably cared for, will by the end of 2-1 

 years measure 24 inches in diameter, with a uniform taper to the top. Such 

 a tree would contain 150 feet of lumber, or about 25,000 feet to the acre. 

 They may be set eight feet apart each way — Orange Judd Farmer. 



