DOES IT PAY THE FARMER TO PROTECT BIRDS? 175 



IMPORTANCE OF BIRDS AS DESTROYERS OF INSECTS. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the benefits the farmer de- 

 rives from birds far outweigh the occasional damage they do. Not- 

 withstanding this, the public, as a rule, is much more alive to the 

 depredations of birds than to the benefits that accrue from them. 

 Nor is this surprising, since the disastrous effects of a raid on sprout- 

 ing corn by crows, or upon ripening cherries by robins and cedar 

 birds, are too apparent to be overlooked, and the resulting loss can be 

 estimated in dollars and cents. Not so the benefits. Occasionally, 

 it is true, the effects of a combined attack of birds upon caterpillars, 

 cankerworms, or other insects which are present in unusual numbers 

 or have played havoc with the foliage, are too evident wholly to escape 

 attention; but more often birds work unnoticed, and the good they 

 do is not at once obvious to the busy farmer. There are few visible 

 tokens of the process by which the crop of hay or green feed has been 

 saved from the cutworms by crows, or the potato crop rescued from 

 the Colorado beetle by the grosbeaks. The birds have done their 

 work quietly but none the less effectively. They have saved, or 

 greatly assisted in saving, the farmer's crop, and nobody is the wiser, 

 save the few who make it the business of their lives to study the 

 habits of birds. 



The time has long passed when the practical farmer can afford 

 to ignore the relation of birds to agriculture. Larger and larger 

 areas are being devoted to tillage every year, and the amount of 

 capital invested in agricultural pursuits in the United States is 

 constantly increasing. Irrigation, until recently almost unprac- 

 ticed in the United States, is fast assuming national importance. 

 The whole world is being laid under contribution for new fruits, 

 forage plants, and crops for the benefit of the American farmer, 

 in order that by his superior energy and foresight he may not only 

 feed our own people but create a surplus of American products for 

 consumption in less favored lands. 



Along with these new introductions and as a necessary result 

 of international commerce, new pests have been introduced. Here, 

 under a favorable climate and new conditions, they multiply till 

 they inflict great damage. The Hessian fly, San Jose scale, and cod- 

 ling moth are examples in point. 



Such pests usually go unnoticed until the damage they do forces 

 them on the attention of a community, when usually they are so 

 numerous and widespread that their extermination is impossible. 

 Once introduced into the country they are here to stay, and the vast 

 sums already spent in efforts to stay the ravages of such pests em- 

 phasize the importance of utilizing to the utmost all the allies 

 nature places at our disposal. 



