RELATIONS OF TREES TO BIRDS AND INSECTS. 



" MY neighbors," said my philosophic friend, " are the 

 cause of more than half the injury my crops receive from 

 caterpillars and other insects. They will not allow the 

 birds a harbor of wood and shrubbery upon their own 

 grounds, and they shoot those which I endeavor to 

 entice by offering them a shelter in my farm. It is 

 strange they cannot understand the mischievous char- 

 acter of their operations of smoothing and grubbing. 

 That little rising ground you see before you, covered 

 with trees and shrubs, is hardly more than a bare rock. 

 It occupies about an eighth of an acre ; but no other pos- 

 sible use could be made of it, except as a quarry. The 

 little grove, or coppice, that stands upon it, is the most 

 beautiful object in sight from my house. I have never 

 allowed it to be disturbed or frequented by social as- 

 semblages. I keep it sacred for the use of the birds, and 

 it is a perfect aviary. The birds that feed upon the de- 

 structive insects that infest my grounds are raised in that 

 temple of the gods, which is watered by numerous little 

 springs that ooze from the crevices of the rock. While 

 they are rearing their young, all species, even if they live 

 exclusively upon seeds after they have left their nest, 

 feed their offspring upon larvae, which they collect 

 from the nearest ground that affords them a supply. 

 Hence I consider that bare rock, with its trees and shrub- 

 bery, the most profitable division of my farm, from the 

 shelter it affords the birds, which are in an important 

 sense my most profitable stock." 



