150 USEFUL BIRDS. 



which feed upon the fruit, seed, or other parts of the tree 

 an increased opportunity to multiply. Insects unfamiliar to 

 our native birds are introduced. The undergrowth, shrub- 

 bery, and vines which shelter many such useful birds are 

 cleared away. This drives these birds away, and so the fight 

 against insects in the orchard is begun with an inadequate 

 number and variety of birds and an unusual abundance of 

 insects. 



Even under these adverse conditions, the entire protection 

 of the foliage from insects may be left to birds, provided that 

 the orchard is favorably situated, that the birds are attracted 

 to it in winter, and that those which nest there in summer 

 are protected, encouraged, and furnished with nesting places. 

 This I have demonstrated by a series of experiments, cover- 

 ing a period of about ten years. 



The protection of the trees and their foliage by birds in- 

 sures the maturing of such fruit as the trees will bear ; and, 

 as probably two-thirds of the fruit trees in Massachusetts 

 receive little care at the hands of their owners, the people 

 of the Commonwealth are largely indebted to the birds for a 

 great part of their annual fruit crop. Even as it is, insect 

 pests destroy a large part of the apple crop in some seasons, 

 and hardly a hand appears to be raised to stay them. Hence 

 I repeat that such fruit crops as we get are largely due to the 

 protection our trees receive from the birds. 



My first attempt at availing myself of the services of the 

 birds in an orchard was made in 1894-95, and the result was 

 given in a bulletin issued by the State Board of Agriculture. 

 The winter birds were attracted to the orchard, and fre- 

 quented the trees during the entire winter of 1894-95. In 

 the fall, winter, and spring they destroyed many thousands 

 of the imagoes and eggs of the fall and spring cankerworm 

 moths, the eggs of the tent caterpillar, and probably also the 

 pupae and imagoes of the codling moth, besides scales, tineids, 

 and other enemies of the trees. When spring came, efforts 

 were made to attract the summer birds to the orchard. These 

 attempts met with such signal success that, although most of 

 the eggs and young birds were destroyed by cats, boys, 

 Crows, and other agencies, the remaining injurious insects 



