THE DIVERSIFIED FARM, 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



The war which is being waged on the 

 English sparrows in some farm sections is 

 only partially successful through lack of 

 co-operation. If every farmer would de- 

 termine to keep the sparrows off his farm 

 place, they could easily be kept in check. 

 I have never allowed this species of Pas- 

 ser, which Congressman Lacey designates 

 "rats of the air." to build or stay upon my 

 Virginia place, and my several immediate 

 neighbors through my solicitation have 

 joined hands with me on this issue. Once 

 rid of them, we have had but little trouble 

 in keeping them away. They are ever 

 ready to return however. During a year's 

 sojourn in Florida two pair discovered my 

 absence and built and reared breeds, keep- 

 ing up a continual warfare with other 

 birds. By fall the sparrows were thick on 

 the place. On my return I commenced 

 picking them off at odd times with a small 

 rifle. In a week I had them so terrorized 

 that they would fly away at sight of me, 

 and after a little while they disappeared. 

 The harsh things that are said about the 

 English sparrow are none too severe. Its 

 meanest trait is that of driving off other 

 birds. Among those which it whips are 

 the wren, song sparrow, chipping sparrow, 

 yellow bird, cat bird, oriole, blue bird and 

 even the robin; in fact, fighting as it does 

 in numbers, it will thrash and even kill 

 almost any other bird. These insectivor- 

 ous birds which the sparrow drives away 

 are of more use to the farmer than he per- 

 haps realizes. 



Then the English sparrow preys upon 

 almost every product of the farm and gar- 

 -den, from the early fruit bud to the ripe 

 fruit and the mature grain. An exhaus- 



tive investigation made by the Department 

 of Agriculture shows that hardly a crop is 

 exempt from this pest's ravages. The evi- 

 dence secured shows the sparrow to be so 

 destructive as to be a serious menace to 

 farm industry in many sections. Farmers 

 report of their entire grape and other fruit 

 yield being almost ruined and of thous- 

 ands of the birds appearing persistently in 

 thoir grain fields. 



After all this, the English sparrow 

 causes an increase in the multiplication of 

 destructive insects and caterpillars instead 

 of acting as a deterrent on them as was ex- 

 pected when the bird was foolishly impor- 

 ted from England. It does not eat the 

 caterpillar itself and it keeps away the 

 American birds which would feed upon 

 them. 



"The English sparrow," said Dr. G. 

 Hart Merriam, the ornithologist of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, in discussing the 

 pest, "is a curse of such virulence that it 

 ought to be systematically attacked and 

 destroyed before it becomes necessary to 

 deplete the public treasury for the pur- 

 pose, as has been done in other countries. 

 By concerted action in the towns and on 

 the farms and by taking advantage of this 

 sparrow's gregarious habit much effective 

 work can be accomplished against it with 

 small expenditure. In the winter time, if 

 food is placed in the same spot at the same 

 hour each day for a week, the sparrows 

 will gather in dense flocks to feed and 

 great numbers can be killed at a time by 

 firing upon them with small shot." 



Dr. Merriam states that the sparrow ia 

 an excellent article of food, equaling many 

 of the smaller game birds. This would 

 not be strange considering its diet. At 



