CHAPTER VII 

 BIRDS IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE 



Economic Value. — As agriculture is the basic industry of 

 Canada, a thorough appreciation of the important relation 

 that the protection of our insectivorous and other birds 

 bears to agricultural production is essential to progress in 

 this branch of national activity. While every farmer, fruit- 

 grower, and forester knows to his cost the results of insect 

 depredations, the non-agricultural section of our population, 

 which depends on the products of the farm and forest, is by 

 no means so fully aware of the immense losses that are caused 

 by insect depredations. As a result of careful investigation 

 we are able to determine the average loss on crops due to 

 insect attacks. On the basis of this knowledge and taking 

 the known yield of our different field crops, I have esti- 

 mated that the loss due to insect depredations on the agri- 

 cultural crops is not less than $125,000,000 annually. Birds 

 constitute one of the chief natural factors tending to keep 

 insects in check. If injurious insects were to increase with- 

 out any natural control, there would be no vegetation left 

 on this continent in a very short time. Therefore, the pro- 

 tection of birds is essential from the point of national 

 economy. 



Again, as the investigations of the Commission of Con- 

 servation have demonstrated, one of the most serious ad- 

 verse factors affecting Canadian agriculture at the present 

 time is the increasing prevalence of weeds. In the Prairie 

 Provinces especially the weed problem is one of the most 

 serious with which the farmers have to contend. And yet 

 the value of certain species of birds as weed-destroyers is 

 hardly realized by most agriculturists. 



166 



