Birds and the Fruit-Farm 273 



Throughout the country it exceeded twenty-seven 

 millions for fruit alone, and the total destruction, 

 including that of hay, tobacco, cotton, truck, 

 cereals, forests, was more than $800,000,000. 



We ourselves are to blame. Never before were 

 birds so scarce as in 1912. Never before were so 

 many wantonly slaughtered. Fniit-growers killed 

 them, and so cut off the hand that feeds; Italians 

 killed them for the pot. All America seemed in a 

 frenzy to slay the goose that lays the golden egg. 

 Folly of follies! Spray and fertilize and cultivate 

 all we please — no birds means no fruit, no crops, 

 no foods. 



In southern France along the Riviera, one of 

 Nature's most productive fruit-gardens, the de- 

 struction of birds by man and by cruel storms, — the 

 seasons of 1910-1912 were among the worst known 

 in the history of the region — resulted in the almost 

 total failure of all fruits. They who in America 

 live in an equally favored fniit region may well 

 take notice. We are swiftly making a Riviera out 

 of our heritage. Scenery is all very fine, climate is 

 health, but the sole hope of the fruit sections of 

 our country lies in the production of fruit. This 

 gone, poverty must certainly come to the region. 

 What, for instance, except the fruit can pour 

 yearly into the pockets of the people of the Valley 

 the vast income they usually receive — ^more than 

 two millions dollars? Will the growers, will 

 the inhabitants of every fruit valley care for 

 their orchards and their vineyards or suffer them 

 18 



