CHAPTER VII 
BIRDS IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 
Economic Value.—As agriculture is the basic industry of 
Canada, a thorough appreciation of the important relation 
that the protection of our insectivorous and other birds 
bears to agricultural production is essential to progress in 
this branch of national activity. While every farmer, fruit- 
grower, and forester knows to his cost the results of insect 
depredations, the non-agricultural section of our population, 
which depends on the products of the farm and forest, is by 
no means so fully aware of the immense losses that are caused 
by insect depredations. As a result of careful investigation 
we are able to determine the average loss on crops due to 
insect attacks. On the basis of this knowledge and taking 
the known yield of our different field crops, I have esti- 
mated that the loss due to insect depredations on the agri- 
cultural crops is not less than $125,000,000 annually. Birds 
constitute one of the chief natural factors tending to keep 
insects in check. If injurious insects were to increase with- 
out any natural control, there would be no vegetation left 
on this continent in a very short time. Therefore, the pro- 
tection of birds is essential from the point of national 
economy. 
Again, as the investigations of the Commission of Con- 
servation have demonstrated, one of the most serious ad- 
verse factors affecting Canadian agriculture at the present 
time is the increasing prevalence of weeds. In the Prairie 
Provinces especially the weed problem is one of the most 
serious with which the farmers have to contend. And yet 
the value of certain species of birds as weed-destroyers is 
hardly realized by most agriculturists. 
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