344 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY . 



dearth of laws, but they are practically a dead letter regarduig the 

 song birds. We must reach the boys and girls in the schoolroom, edu- 

 cate this generation, and we have the law makers and the bonnet 

 wearers of the next — any effort directly or indirectly where women 

 can be induced to substitute something besides birds and skins and 

 feathers for adornment and a systematic organization throughout the 

 country for the reduction of the English sparrow. Educate the farm- 

 er and the horticulturist to the economic value of the birds, and they 

 will be their best protectors. The farmer is prone to look upon most 

 birds with suspicion. He will tell how the Baltimore oriole eats his 

 peas, but he cannot tell you how many cutworms and injurious in- 

 sects that same bird destroys. 



The king bird has a habit of eating his honey bees, but here is 

 what Prof. Beal, of Washington, says : "After examining 281 

 stomachs of king birds, only fourteen contained honey bees. Of the 

 fifty bees in these fourteen stomachs, forty were drones, four work- 

 ers and six unable to identify sex." For a long list of similar 

 analysis of bird stomachs, quoted by Prof. F. L. Washburn, see 

 page 355, Report of this Society for 1903. These same men fail 

 to put on the credit side of this bird the countless numbers of beetles, 

 weevils; wasps, grasshoppers, robber flys and other insects that prey 

 upon fruit, grain and even their honey bees, far outnumbering in 

 good the fact that they do eat a very few honey bees. I could go on 

 indefinitely quoting you statistics from the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, but you would not remember the statements, 

 and if you are interested in them a postal sent to Washington will 

 bring you without expense these bulletins, giving you full informa- 

 tion as to the insects, weeds, etc. each bird destroys. 



Now talk this matter up with your friends through the school, 

 the church, wherever and whenever the opportunity offers, and we 

 will soon have a working force that will see the laws are enforced. 

 There will be an increase in the planting of trees, a suppression of 

 recklessness in chopping down woodlands, and you will be rewarded 

 by having a corps of wdnged workers around your home, farm and 

 city. 



Prof. Washburn : I want to endorse one thing the lady said. 

 I think it is one of the most terrible things imaginable to see a young 

 boy in the spring take an air gun or a sling shot and kill the birds, 

 and I hope the society will take some action toward stopping that 

 practice. 



Mr. Yahnke : I w^ould like to ask the professor what in his 

 estimation is the best method to teach the boys the value of the birds 

 and to induce them to protect them ? 



Prof. Washburn : I think the school teachers have that in their 

 hands. 



