100 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



am confident of. In more than fifty orchards which I have 

 myself carefully examined, those trees which were marked with 

 the woodpecker (for some trees they never touch, perhaps 

 because not penetrated by insects,) were uniformly the most 

 thriving, and seemingly the most productive. Many of these 

 were upwards of sixty years old, their trunks completely covered 

 with holes, while the branches were broad, luxuriant, and loaded 

 with fruit. Of decayed trees, more than three-fourths were 

 untouched by the woodpecker. Several intelligent farmers with 

 whom I have conversed, candidly acknowledge the truth of these 

 observations, and with justice, look upon these birds as bene- 

 ficial ; but the most common opinion is, that they bore the trees 

 to suck the sap, and so destroy the vegetation ; though pine, 

 and other resinous trees, on the juice of which it is not pre- 

 tended they feed, are often found equally perforated. Were the 

 sap of the tree their object, the saccharine juice of the birch, the 

 sugar-maple, and several others, would be much more inviting, 

 because more sweet and nourishing than that of either the pear 

 or apple tree ; but I have not observed one mark upon the 

 former, for ten thousand that may be seen on the latter. 

 Besides, the early part of spring is the season when the sap 

 flows most abundantly, whereas it is only during the months of 

 September, October, and November that they are seen so inde- 

 fatigably engaged in orchards, probing every crack and crevice, 

 bormg through the bark, and what is worth remembering, 

 chiefly on the south and south-west sides of the tree, for the 

 eggs and larvas deposited there by the countless swarms of 

 summer insects. These, if suffered to remain, would prey upon 

 the very vitals, if I may so express it, of the tree, and in the 

 succeeding summer give birth to myriads more of their race, 

 equally destructive." 



Here, then, is a whole species, I may say genus, of birds, 

 which Providence seems to have formed for the protection of 

 our fruit and forest trees from the ravages of vermin, which 

 every day destroy millions of those noxious insects that would 

 otherwise blast the hopes of the husbandman, and which even 

 promote the fertility of the trees ; and, in return, are proscribed 

 by those who ought to have been their protectors, and incite- 

 ments and rewards held out for their destruction ! Lot us 

 examine better into the operations of nature, and many of our 



