Utility and Economy of Birds 



value to agriculture of bird-life, of which 

 Birds, Insects, and Crops, issued in March 1917, 

 may be noticed as but one example. 



Mention may also be made of the treaty, 

 the first instrument of its kind, made be- 

 tween the United States and Canada in 1917, 

 although its conclusion was due not to the 

 War but to the enlightened view of birds 

 prevailing across the Atlantic. This treaty 

 protected more than a thousand valuable 

 species of birds from the Gulf of Mexico to 

 the North Pole. It also provided that any 

 bird important to agriculture as a destroyer 

 of insects should not be killed at any time. 

 This, it was reckoned, would save American 

 farmers millions of dollars lost through the 

 crop depredations of insects (Globe, 12 .iii .18). 

 Dr. Gordon Hewitt, referring to this treaty, 

 gave it as his opinion that "the protection 

 of insectivorous birds is at all times a neces- 

 sary measure in crop production. At the 

 present time, when the production of food 

 crops is not only a national but a world 

 necessity, the protection of such birds should 

 be regarded as a measure of national defence " 



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