^2 ANNUAL REPOKT 



industries, amounting in the aggregate to not less than several mill- 

 ions of dollars per annum. Indeed, it is safe to say that it now exerts 

 a more marked effect upon the agricultural interests of this country 

 than any other species of bird; and its unprecedented increase and 

 spread, taken in connection with the extent of its ravages in certain 

 districts may be regarded with grave apprehension. In the early 

 spring it prevents the growth of a vast quantity of fruit by eating the 

 germs from the fruit buds of the trees, bushes and vines, of which the 

 peach, pear, plum, cherry, apple, apricot, currant and grape suffer 

 most. Lettuce, peas, beets, cabbages, radishes and cauliflowers are 

 attacked in turn, and devoured as soon as they show their heads 

 above the ground, and in many cases the seed is taken out of the earth 

 before it has germinated. The grape industry is also a heavy sufferer 

 from the ravages of these pests. At the end of the season of 1886 bit- 

 ter complaints of damages done the grape crop by sparrows had reached 

 the department from twenty-five States and the District of Columbia, 

 as follows : Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, District of 

 Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, 

 Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, 

 New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, 

 Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia^and West Virginia. Its consumption 

 and waste of corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley and buckwheat, in many 

 parts of the country is enormous. It feeds upon the kernel when it is 

 in the soft, milky state, as well as when it has matured ^nd hardened, 

 and in fields of ripe grain it scatters upon the ground even more than 

 it consumes. 



In addition to the disfigurement of buildings by the nests and ex- 

 crement of the sparrows, and the injury to ornamental trees and 

 shrubs resulting from the same cause, it should be mentioned that they 

 frequently damage and sometimes destroy the ivy and woodbine cov- 

 ering the walls of churches and other edifices. The destructive habits 

 of the English sparrow in Beimuda, Cuba, Grermany, Austria, Russia, 

 India, Egypt and Australia are too well known to require more than 

 a passing observation. In England alone the damage it causes has 

 been estimated at not less than $3,850,000 per annum, and in Austra- 

 lia the loss is much greater. It threatens to become a more baneful 

 pest to the American farmer and the horticulturist than the grass- 

 hopper, caterpiller and Colorado beetle. 



The report further suggests that legislative action be taken to stop 

 any protection at present afforded the English sparrow; to authorize 

 killing it; the destruction of its nests and young; and to protect the 



