288 An American Fruit-Farm 



birds render us in destroying fungi. We do know 

 that birds eat the scale — the widespread and 

 numerous woodpecker family, the house-sparrow, 

 the tree-creeper, the long-tailed tit, grosbeak, 

 oriole, warbler, wren, chickadee, waxwing, vireo — 

 in all, some fifty-seven varieties of birds, all of 

 which feed on the scale. Of these, twenty-seven 

 varieties destroy the two most destructive scales — 

 the black-olive scale, and the oyster-shell bark- 

 louse. Fungi are vegetables, plants, growing from 

 infinitesimal seeds called spores, which in countless 

 numbers float on the wind and suck the life out 

 of other plants. At present our chief defense is 

 judicious spraying. 



From 1900 to 1 9 10 the value of farm property in 

 the United States increased one hundred per cent. 

 — ^that is, from $20,439,900,000 to $40,991,450,000. 

 Diuing this period the value of land increased 

 one hundred and eight per cent, per acre, but the 

 population of the United States increased only 

 twenty-one per cent., which means that, relative to 

 population, land is acquiring a scarcity value. 

 Indeed, the increase in farm values was a significant, 

 probably the most significant, increase among all 

 the changes in the affairs of the American people. 

 Of every one hundred of our people, fifty-four live in 

 the country; forty-six in the city. The actual land 

 area of our country is just short of 2,000,000,000 

 acres, and of this enormous area only twenty-five 

 per cent, is improved land. On the other hand, 

 forty-six per cent, of the whole is actually farm 



