NEWS AND NOTES 383 



head. More than 72,000 weed seeds have been found in the 

 stomach of a wild duck taken in Louisiana in February which 

 shows that this bird is more valuable to the farmer alive than 

 trussed on somebody's table. Weed seeds form the largest single 

 element of food of the horned lark, and are also a large part of the 

 daily diet of the meadow-lark, bobolink, blackbird, chipping spar- 

 row and chickadee. The mourning-dove is a strict vegetarian with 

 a never-flagging appetite for weed seeds. 



When a single plant of purslane is said to produce 250,000 seeds, 

 black mustard from 10,000 to 15,000 and other field pests are as 

 productive, the farmer should realize how important it is to protect 

 his swift helpers who earn their own board, seek their own shelter, 

 and if they could speak for themselves, would ask only that they 

 should riot be destroyed while they are cheerfully working in the 

 farmer's fields and orchards. 



While it is hard for one farmer to keep thoughtless hunters and 

 other bird enemies from killing or driving away the Httle field 

 helpers, united, the farmer folk can save many a feathered "field 

 hand" who, in gratitude for protection, will pour out glad songs 

 and give useful service. 



The farmers in Warrick, Vanderburg and Gibson Counties, 

 Indiana, have organized themselves into a larmers' tri-country 

 union to protect the birds. 



The importance of elementary agriculture as a school subject is 

 very generally recognized in the cotton States, and it is now being 

 taught to some extent in a large proportion of the rural schools. 

 A new United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 294, 

 Lessons on Cotton for the Rural Common Schools, prepared for 

 teachers, is made up of a series of lessons, exercises, and references 

 on every operation in the growing of cotton, based on economic 

 production. These are intended to supplement the organized 

 school work in elementary agriculture and to furnish matenal 

 that can not otherwise be obtained. 



More information upon this subject may be obtained from 

 Department Bulletin 132, Correlating Agriculture with the Public 

 School Subjects in the Southern States. Both bulletins ma>- he 

 had upon appHcation to the Editor and Chief, Division of Publica- 

 tions, United States Department of Agriculture, as long as the 

 supply for free distribution lasts. 



