127 

 ESS:\Y Ox THE UllMTY OF HIItDS TO AGKICULTURL'. 



HV FKANK II. I'AL.MKI.', OF JJOXI-OIM). 



Better and more intim:ite aciiuiiiiitju c ■ with the habits ot" 

 ''birds, animals andpLants, which arc to be found in the vicinity 

 of the fann,' is the only way to a[)preciate the assistance nature 

 is willing to render to the farmer ; and the more educated and 

 intelligent farmei's become as a class, the more will they study 

 the principles of grow-th and reproduction in the natural world. 



It is an universal principle in the whole realm of nature that 

 tinimals and plants live by the destruction of other animals or 

 plants. So life ir; transmuted into higher life, and a chain of ex- 

 istence is formed, one lin!c (jf which being broken, disastrous 

 residfs are sure to follow. 



Now nature, if left to herself, establishes tliis whole- 

 j?ome erpiilibrium between the fe.ttliered and insect tribes, 

 tIz : she produces no more insects than can be kept in check by 

 the birds. But man, by his artificial habits, disturbs the proper 

 balance between these tribes. By cutting down the woods, by 

 •<listurbing the quiet of the forest by the sharp report of the 

 gnn, he destroys or drives away the birds, and thereby stimu- 

 lates the production of insects, which become almost the great- 

 est [>ests of the agricultural interests of the country. The 

 extent of the evil caused by the infringement of these natural 

 laws is easily demonstrated, first by reference to the undoubted 

 facts of j)ast experience, and secondly by showing what must 

 surely follow the destruction of birds. It is estimated that at 

 least 5, 000, 000 bushels of wheat are yearly destroyed by in- 

 sects in the United States. 100,000 rose trees were lost 

 by one florist in France, being destroyed by insects. AVilson 

 ^ays : ** Would it be believed that an insect no larger than a 

 <^in of rice should silently and in one season destroy some 

 thonsand acres of pine trees, many of them from two to three 

 feet in diameter and a hundred to a hundred and fift>^ feet high." 

 .And man v other like instances of the destructiveness of insects 



