294 AKID AGRICULTURE. 



WORD ISTearly all birds are farmer's friends. You 



should not let the fact that birds do, at times, eat 

 a little of your grain or fruit, irritate you. Re- 

 member that you can afford to feed them. Even 

 if against your own intentions you occasionally 

 supply a young chicken to a too friendly hawk 

 or owl, you should not harbor a resentment that 

 will cause you to indiscriminately take the life 

 of these birds. Killing birds (or killing toads 

 or harmless snakes) is "destroying the goose that 

 lays the golden egg." Often successful farming 

 is successful war against insects and weeds. The 

 best of soldiers to enlist in this warfare are birds. 

 There are a few exceptions, but they may be 

 counted on the fingers of one hand, if you have 

 lost your thumb. I would not let magpies get 

 too numerous, for they are mischievious and 

 great destroyers of other birds' nests. I would 

 never fail to shoot the pesky little sparrow hawk, 

 for he does more damage than good by warring 

 on our better bird friends. Sparrow hawks de- 

 stroy many grasshoppers, but we had better feed 

 the grasshoppers to meadow larks and turkeys. 

 The large-sized, rough legged or Cooper's hawks 

 may be destroyed for the same reason. The Eng- 

 lish sparrow is a pest and altogether too numer- 

 ous. When blackbirds get too thick it is well to 

 put "f our and twenty in a pie." I fully believe in 

 the proper use of game birds in season, but too 

 many are ignorant of the restrictions and are not 

 law-abiding citizens in this regard. The differ- 



