(jinddian Forcslrtj Joiinuil, Mdij, 1U17 



1093 



Protection of Birds a Farm Asset 



BY C. C. CLUTE 



IN "OUR DUMB ANIMALS' 



If one tenth of all the agricultural 

 products raised annually in the 

 United States were scattered over 

 different sections of the country where 

 most needed, would it help fight the 

 high cost of living? Statistics show- 

 that annuallv there is a loss of be- 

 tween $800,000,000 and S900,000,000 

 in the agricultural products of the 

 United States, all due to the ravages 

 of insects. 



This fact was cited recently by a 

 leading Chicago paper, and it was 

 further cited that the loss might be 

 materially lessened were birds pro- 

 tected as they should be. When one 

 of the leading metropolitan news- 

 papers of the land advocates that 

 every available plot of ground be 

 turned into a garden spot and culti- 

 vated, and when in the same issue that 

 same paper urges that birds be pro- 

 tected that they might destroy in- 

 sects, it is surely time for every one to 

 consider what part .he is to do in the 

 work, and, insofar as possible lend a 

 hand in doing his mite. One insect 

 destroyed in the spring means the 

 destruction of hundreds, and in some 

 cases thousands, ere the summer is 

 over. 



Government statistics and personal 

 observations show over and over 

 again that the birds are the farmers' 

 best friends, which, in return for their 

 services, ask only protection that they 

 may bring forth more enemies of in- 

 sects. 



Just how is this protection to be 

 given? Happily the time is passed, or 

 nearly so, when the farmers think 

 that the birds must be destroyed be- 

 cause of the fruit they eat. In com- 

 parison with the amount of good they 

 do, the amount of fruit eaten by birds 

 during the summer is an infiniCesimal 

 matter, — a mighty good form of in- 

 surance for the farmer. 



But there is another way in which 

 the birds require protection, and that 



is protection during Iheir nesting 

 season. Not only should prowling 

 cals be restrained and egg collectors 

 either be made to see the folly of their 

 heartless whims or else be summoned 

 before the law, but provision should 

 be made for the nests. Birds like 

 company. Even the bluejay, usually 

 termed a rascal but at heart a boon 

 companion of the farmer, likes to have 

 his nest near a dwelling. The robin 

 appreciates forked sticks placed in 

 trees for him, and the wren, bluebird, 

 and purple martin enjoy the com- 

 panionship of man as soon as they 

 learn that he is their friend. 



The best way to get on amicable 

 terms with birds is to build and put 

 up bird-houses and see that such are 

 not destroyed by boys or preyed upon 

 by cats. Put up a single birdhouse 

 this summer if you are a skeptic and 

 watch the wren, or bluebird, or purple 

 martin, as it feeds its young, taking 

 note of the kind of feed it uses and the 

 number of trips made per hour. Keep 

 a record of this for a few^ hours, es- 

 timate the good done in a day, in a 

 week, in a month, and in a nesting 

 season, and you will be wiser the fol- 

 lowing year. 



I know one farmer in particular who 

 lost, during one summer, three rows 

 of corn forty rods long. The corn 

 grew next, to a fence row heavily 

 sodded with blue grass, which pro- 

 duced swarms of grasshoppers. For 

 the sake of experiment alone, for this 

 farmer was a skeptic, last spring he 

 put up twenty-one bird-houses, placed 

 two rods apart on the fence along the 

 forty rods. The houses were some 

 that he and the boys had made during 

 the winter months, from dry-goods 

 boxes obtained in town. Thirteen of 

 the twenty-one houses were inhabited 

 during the following summer, six by 

 wrens, four by bluebirds, and three 

 by colonies of purple martins. 



The grasshoppers that summer 



