PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 75 



As year by yearihe area of the cultivated lands greatly increased and the 

 extent of wild forests rapidly diminished, so also have the birds disappeared, 

 and, of a natural consequence, the insect world has as greatly increased, until, 

 at the present time, each plant grown by the farmer, gardener and fruit 

 grower is attacked by myriads of insect enemies and the grower must wage 

 a ceaseless warfare in order to secure his share of the products. 



As certain trees of the forest have been exterminated, the bugs and 

 worms that feed upon them have been forced to find other plants in the cul- 

 tivated lands on which to prey. 



The increase in population has also caused a diminution of the number 

 of game birds, as the demand for food seemed to require. At the same time 

 the secret hiding-places for nests have been removed with the destruction of 

 the forests, hence many birds seek other locations in which to breed. 



In some of our western prairie states a few years since, there were large 

 numbers of quail and prairie fowls. This region was visited by a scourge of 

 locusts which came late in the summer of 1878. The corn, grass, vegetables 

 and trees were ruined in a very short time after their visitation. 



The females deposited untold myriads of eggs in the hard trodden 

 roads, fields and woods, and then died. 



Many of the inhabitants, having lost everything they possessed except 

 the land, felt obliged to make hunting the winter's occupation to keep from 

 suffering. 



Hundreds of car loads of birds were shipped to the markets of the Eastern 

 cities during the winter. 



Spring came, and with the warm days the hatching of the grasshoppers, 

 at first so very small that a quail might eat a hundred before its hunger would 

 be appeased. But there were no quails. A family of prairie chickens might 

 require several thousand daily, but there were no birds left to devour the now 

 rapidly growing 'hoppers. 



\Yith the springing up of the young corn and grain, onward came the 

 army of locusts, now beyond the power of man to vanquish, and a second 

 time the crops were destroyed before the insects were large enough to fly 

 away. The balance provided by the Almighty between birds and insects had been 

 destroyed by man. 



As a result several of the Western States were retarded in their pros- 

 perity and did not recover for several years. It would be impossible to esti- 

 mate the suffering caused, much of which might have been averted had not 

 this wholesale destruction of birds taken place. 



The planting and maintaining of additional woodlands, more especially 

 if there were also thickets, or dense undergrowths, would do much toward 

 encouraging the birds, and, if their number is increased there must be a cor- 

 responding reduction in the number of insects which are now so destructive 

 to all cultivated crops, and also a large increase of game birds for human food. 



Destruction of forests reduces the number of birds and quite naturally 

 insects multiply as a result. 



Protect the birds ; increase the forests, and insect pests will gradually 

 cease their annoyance. 



