1094 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, 1917 



made a rich living for the birds, and 

 when the fall came, that farmer had 

 the satisfaction of gathering twenty- 

 three bushels of corn from the three 

 rows that grew next to the fence, right 

 where there was no corn at all the 

 year before. With corn selling at 

 fifty-five cents per bushel, it repre- 

 sented a saving of $12.65 for that year 



alone, and with the same insurance 

 for the following year with no outlay 

 at all. Does it pay? Boys, get busy. 

 Get your fathers to figure with you 

 how much corn growing next to a 

 fence row is destroyed by insects, and 

 then see if your fathers will let you 

 put up bird-houses and pay you the 

 difference for the first year. 



The Case for The Woodpecker! 



"What good is the woodpecker?" 

 Letters reach the Canadian Forest- 

 ry Journal asking this question and 

 in many cases proceeding to answer 

 it with threats of extermination for ail 

 woodpeckers seen about the corres- 

 pondent's property. 



It would appear that only the 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker should be 

 regarded as detrimental to tree life, 

 and that all other varieties are to be 

 encouraged. The following article 

 by Dr. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion 

 Entomologist, will be found of value : 



Woodpeckers as Insect Destroyers 



A Canadian bank manager re- 

 cently boasted that he had shot 

 seven woodpeckers in succession in 

 his orchard, evidently under the 

 impression that he was performing 

 an exceedingly meritorious service 

 to the community. He was des- 

 troying one of our most active 

 insectivorous birds and, though keenly 

 interested in the conservation of his 

 trees and of our forests, he was 

 destroying a most useful ally in their 

 preservation. Boring insects are 

 deadly pests of trees, and wood- 

 peckers are their special enemies, as 

 they are able to reach these pests so 

 secure from other enemies. No birds 

 are more useful in the protection of 

 our forests. 



With the exception of the Sap- 

 suckers, our woodpeckers .rarely 

 attack healthy trees and arc among 

 the most beneficial of our insect- 

 destroying birds. The Yellow-bellied 



Sapsucker has a black patch on its 

 breast, while the top of the head from 

 the base of the bill is red. These 

 marks distinguish it from all other 

 woodpeckers. It girdles the trees 

 with holes in securing the sap which 

 forms part of its food. 



The different species of wood- 

 peckers are the most important 

 enemies of the bark-beetles and 

 timber-boring beetles, these being 

 the chief enemies of our forest and 

 other trees. About seventy-five per 

 cent of their total food is animal food 

 and this consists chiefly of insects, 

 among which the wood-boring beetles 

 predominate. The Common Flicker 

 is a great destroyer of ants, parti- 

 cularly on lawns, as many as 5,000 

 ants having been found in the stomach 

 of a single bird. The little Downy 

 Woodpecker and Flicker should be 

 encouraged to come into gardens. 

 They will readily accept nesting- 

 boxes and the encouragement of 

 these birds is the best insurance 

 policy that the tree-lover can take 

 out. 



PENNSYLVANIA FIRE LOSSES 



The report covering the spring and 

 fall forest fire seasons of 1916, issued 

 by the Pennsylvania Department of 

 Forestry, shows that while almost as 

 many forest fires burned in Pennsyl- 

 vania in 1916 as in 1915, the area 

 burned over was less than half that 

 of 1915, and the timber loss was only 

 a trifle over one-fourth as large. 



