1252 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Aiuiusl, 191. 



What Birds are Worth to Forests 



By \V. C. J. Hall, Quebec. 



One Hundred Million Dollars is Estimated 

 Insect Injury Yearly to Field and Forest. 



Canada has a formidable contract 

 confronting her since the passing cf 

 the treaty signed by Great Britain 

 (acting for us) and the United States 

 regarding the protection of migratory 

 birds in North America. It should 

 not be necessary to have a treaty at 

 all. because it is in the direct interest 

 of every man, woman and child that 

 bird life should be fully protected, but 

 unfortunately legislation and treaties 

 are necessary owing to the fact that 

 we all have been shamefully neglect- 

 ful of our own interests, and in very 

 many cases ignorant of them. 



To demonstrate the necessity of 

 bird life, one must first of all show 

 what would happen if we had no birds 

 —the. foremost statisticians of the 

 United States have stated over their 

 signatures that if we had no bird life, 

 no forests would exist on the North 

 American continent in twelve years — 

 if then the forests were thus obliterat- 

 ed by the onslaught of insects, owing 

 to the absence of bird life, what would 

 become of us; naturally man also 

 would become extinct and that very 

 raridly. 



As things stand at present, the best 

 informed statisticians affirm that the 

 annual loss in the United States to 

 field and forest crops, is one billion 

 dollcU's; in the Dominion, the loss is 

 estimated at one hundred millions 

 annually, all owing to injurious in- 

 sects. 



The only agency we have to check 

 the devastations of the insects are the 

 birds. A man can spray his trees in 

 an orchard, or his potato crop in the 

 garden, but if he is confronted with 

 the task of looking to the whole of his 

 farm in the same way, what could he 

 do? Nothing! The case would be one 

 of surrendering. Then take the for- 

 ests, could any Government under- 



take to spray the forests? I trow not. 

 The only way to preserve the balance 

 of rature and let humanity survive, 

 is to protect the biids and let them do 

 the work. They charge nothing for 

 it, it is their daily work, from morning 

 to night. Some varieties of birds can 

 and do consume their own weight of 

 insects daily. With very few ex- 

 ceptions, they are all useful in one 

 way or another and it is our direct 

 and vital interest to see that they are 

 not killed, captured, or even molested. 

 Any person versed in ornithology 

 wil admit that birds take a toll of 

 fruit, but compare the good they do 

 with the small amount of depreda- 

 tions they commit, it is about in the 

 same proportion to the damage done 

 to field crops by the red deer and 

 moose; they kept a record one year in 

 Maine and established that some 

 fifty dollars worth of crops were 

 damaged by these animals. That is 

 the proper point of view to look at the 

 matter from. 



FMch Robin Worth SIO 



Much as our existence depends 

 upon bird life, still a large percentage 

 of us are busily at work destroying the 

 birds and especially, our alien popu- 

 lation. These latter come from all 

 parts of Europe, and finding they can 

 carry arms without let or hindrance, 

 they sally forth and shoot anything 

 and' everything. Massachusetts has 

 just passed a law prohibiting aliens 

 from carrying arms in the State — in 

 New Jersey no one is permitted to use 

 anything in the shape of an arm, 

 except the double barrelled gun. 

 They conclude that anyone so armed 

 is sufficiently eciuipped for sport, and 

 does not need pump-guns, repeaters, 

 or automatics. But the aliens are not 

 the only offenders, far too many of 

 our young people destroy insecti- 



