200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc 



crows eating cutworms on the plowed lands and among the 

 tobacco plants. They worked at this almost constantly at 

 some seasons and one could see by following the crows where 

 the worms had been taken near the surface of the ground. 



Methods of attracting Birds. 



The American people are fast beginning to learn that it is 

 not foreordained and inevitable that birds must be exter- 

 minated and that it is possible and quite feasible to increase 

 their numbers enormously. A few people here and there are 

 beginning to accomplish something in a small way, but gen- 

 eral co-operation in the matter is still almost unthought of. 



Mr. Henry Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company, 

 is a bird student as well as a lover of birds, — one who 

 realizes their usefulness and has determined to set an exam- 

 ple in the right direction by establishing a bird reservation 

 of his own. Mr. Jefferson Butler, in '' ISTature and Culture " 

 of February, 1912, tells how the birds are increasing on Mr. 

 Ford's farm. Mr. Ford has purchased a tract of land about 

 nine miles west of Detroit, Mich., containing over 2,100 

 acres and including numy farms, on one of which he was 

 born, and in this vicinity his boyhood days were spent. He 

 has built a dam on the little river Rouge, which causes an 

 overflow that provides nesting places for w^aterfowl, while 

 the power arising from it runs an electric light plant which 

 supplies power and light to all the farms within a radius of 

 three miles. Wild rice for ducks and other waterfowl has 

 been sown in marshes, and hemp and other seeds attractive 

 to birds are raised on the cultivated farms. Food houses 

 have been erected for winter feeding of birds which are 

 supplied with hemp, millet seed and sunflower seed, and suet 

 is fastened to the trees by bits of wire screen to prevent the 

 larger birds carrying it away. x\n abundant supply of fresh 

 water is warmed by electricity to ]irevent it from freezing, 

 so that the birds may drink and bathe. J3irds are made to 

 feel at home, given food in abundance and protected from 

 their natural enemies, and they are increasing in numbers. 

 On December 19 Mr. Butler counted 140 tree sparrows, 6 



