CHAPTER II 



THEIB RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 



1. General. 2. Harmful Insects. 3. Destruction of Insects by 



birds. 4. Consumption of Seeds. 5. Effect on Rodents. 6. 



Destruction of Fruit and Grain. 7. The Kea Parrot. 8. 

 The Cash Value of Birds. 



General 



When man first scratched the soil with a 

 pointed stick and deposited in the furrow thus 

 formed a seed of wild grain, he unwittingly was 

 embarked upon an enterprise contrary to the set 

 rules of Nature. By planting and cultivating 

 crops where Nature had not intended them to 

 grow, he had created a disorder in her narrow 

 pathways. The natural conditions of law and 

 order were knocked topsy-turvy. No time was 

 allowed in which to build up a bulwark of protec- 

 tion for the new creations grain, fruit, and vege- 

 tables contrived from artificial selection; it all 

 happened too suddenly. Insects, weeds, beasts, 

 fungi, and mildew diseases, finding a fresh outlet 

 for expansion, seized these unnatural plants to 



24 



