PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 83 



THE RELATION OF BIRDS AND FORESTS. 



Address by John P. Brown before the State Audubon Society at Indianapolis, March 19, 1901. 



In the economy of nature the feathered branch of the animal kingdom and 

 the major portion of the vegetable world are ever one and inseparable; one was 

 created for the other; the life and well being of each depend upon the ability of its 

 mate to protect it from insidious foes, tireless in their efforts to destroy first one 

 and then the other. 



While we are aware that upon the arid plains a few birds exist, and that some 

 are born in the frozen, treeless, arctic wastes and follow the billows of the sea in 

 search of food, apparently as free from attachment to forests as are the fish upon 

 which they daily feed, yet upon general principles, and in general terms, forests 

 are as necessary to the well being of birds as are the birds indispensable for forest 

 preservation. 



I propound a mathematical proposition which is capable of conclusive dem- 

 onstration. Given and old field, a worm fence and a bevy of birds, the invariable 

 result will be a hedge row of trees and shrubs, bearing fruits and nuts, edible to the 

 winged tribes of the locality. 



Thus the birds, which were the creators of forests, become also their pro- 

 tectors by reducing the number of insect enemies, and as a consequence the 

 existence and well-being of the birds is Maintained by the natural productions 

 of the forests, the fruits of their own labors. 



THE BIRTH OF A FOREST. 



Nature and man have different methods of forest planting. Nature is delib- 

 erate, man always in haste. Nature begins with the seed, man demands a tree 

 already grown to start with, the larger the tree the better. Nature designs va- 

 riety, all sorts of trees mingled together, some of economic worth, many being 

 valueless for commercial uses. 



We view a forest : A hurricane sweeps through the wood, leveling the timber 

 by a single blast. Miles of territory are cleared of all forest growths. 



Time passes. The dead trunks feed the fire which completes this work of de- 

 struction. 



Nature abhors a barren waste and in time begins the work of restoration. 

 Birds fly across the treeless plain bearing food for themselves and their young, 

 and deposit here and there such seeds as compose their food. Each stump serves 



