250 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Mr. Robert W. Day of Springfield is setting out a great 

 number of young pines in Hampden, Mass. He has had much 

 trouble with the pine weevil (Pissodes strohi), which de- 

 stroys the pine top and causes a crook in the trunk injuring 

 or ruining the timber. He is now putting up nesting boxes 

 for the birds, and is putting out suet and other food for them 

 in winter to attract them to his pines, in the hope that they 

 will destroy the weevils. 



Mr. L. B. Sherman of Marshfield, Mass., has a cranberry 

 bog which he has surrounded with bird houses, and numbers 

 of birds are breeding in them. The bird houses have two 

 tenements, and he claims that sometimes both are occupied. 

 Mr. O. C. Bourne, Deputy Fish and Game Commissioner, 

 says that he visited Mr. Sherman's place and believes that 

 many of the birds in the surrounding country gather about 

 that bog. It will be interesting to note what effect the birds 

 will have on the destructive insect enemies of the cranberry 

 plant. 



People who have succeeded in destroying or driving out 

 the English sparrow have had greater success in attracting 

 and protecting birds than others. Mr. Sewall A. Faunce of 

 Boston deprecates the decrease of English sparrows, and 

 writes, " Just why you have condemned our best pest de- 

 stroyer is a mystery to me, and I am certain it is leading to 

 their extermination. Few are left with us now, and we are 

 driven to substitute insecticides, which damage the plant even 

 if they kill the worms. Sparrows are harmless and eat the 

 worm. One of my neighbors has just waked up to the situa- 

 tion and corroborates the statement that sparrows pursue and 

 destroy the brown-tail moths besides caring for our wood- 

 bines, rose bushes, fruits and trees." It is now quite gen- 

 erally admitted that this sparrow destroys a great variety of 

 insect pests. Its objectionable habits are too well known to 

 recapitulate them here. Xo doubt some local decrease in 

 English sparrows may be accounted for by a disease sup- 

 posed to be a species of coccidiosis, which attacks a large 

 proportion of the sparrows in some localities and is in some 

 cases fatal. Dr. John C. Phillips writes from Wenham that 

 many English sparrows died there during the summer of 



