(1(111(1(1 i tin Farvsliij Journal, Au(jiisl, 1U1\ 



125: 



vorous birds. It is cstimaled liial 

 each robin is worlli ten dollars an- 

 nually to the country, so when a 

 young fellow goes out and kills lil'ly 

 odd of these birds one can easih' 

 calculate the great work he did on 

 that day. In the United States Dr, 

 Hornaday, the best authority, as- 

 serts that apart from the grown up 

 population who use arms, each twelve 

 months sees at least oOO.OOO young 

 men mature and go out shooting; 

 will any sane person claim that under 

 such conditions there is a fair chance 

 of bird life surviving in sufficient 

 quantity to hold in check the opera- 

 tions of injurious insects. In my 

 opinion, it would be a good invest- 

 ment for the Dominion Government 

 to buy wholesale, Dr. Hornada>'s 

 work, entitled "Our Vanishing Wild 

 Life" and distribute it gratis to people 

 in our towns and country places, as a 

 preliminary educational measure to 

 the masses. 



A Monument to a Bird 



It would be easy to quote many 

 instances of the tremendous utility of 

 insectivorous birds in America, and 

 on the other Continents, but just one 

 will suffice for my purpose: — In the 

 State of Utah, near the Great Salt 

 lake, the black crickets arrived for 

 three years running and utterly de- 

 stroyed the grain crops. The people 

 had to buy grain in neighboring 

 States anel fortunately could do so. 

 The black headed gull made its ap- 

 pearance, found the crickets to its 

 liking, and in a short space of time 

 freed the country of the pest. The 

 population have erected, or are about 

 to erect, a monument to the bird 

 which saved them from starving. 



It is in the forest that the birds are 

 of most ir estimable value, they are the 

 great and only agency which keeps in 

 check the gypsy-moth, the bud-worm, 

 the larch fly, the brown-tail, etc., etc. 

 The parasite does good work too, but 

 cannot compare in efficiency with the 

 birds. Disease will not exterminate 

 injurious insects, nor will the parasite, 

 animals cannot do it, man cannot do 

 it, there is no force innature which 

 can control the insect world but the 

 birds, they are the most indispens- 



able balancing force of nature. 

 Bird Life and Forests 



It would be well for the Conserva- 

 tion C^ommission to take this subject 

 up warmly, start a crusade for bird 

 protection. They would find very 

 able assistants in the women of the 

 country. It would only be necessary 

 to give one or two lectures in each 

 town, city, or village, to enlist their 

 services and start a branch Society 

 for bird protection. This action 

 would ensure a fair measure of pro- 

 tection in such places and their en- 

 virons. The farmers should be inter- 

 viewed and their true interests ex- 

 plained, they w^ould look after that 

 section of the country. There re- 

 mains the forests — I wonder how 

 many of our lumbermen have given 

 any study to bird life and realize 

 what it means; it must be a small per- 

 centage. Their efforts are confined 

 to trying to keep fire out of their 

 holdings, they have thought little 

 of the insects and the bircls. It is 

 time they awakened to the true situa- 

 tion and lent their assistance to bird 

 protection, thus helping thenlselves 

 at an absolutely minimum outlay, 

 for their fine rangers could placard 

 the outskirts of their forests, and 

 thus help to a very great extent. 



Fire and Insects 

 As betw-een the damage done by 

 fire and the insects let us see what 

 figures tell us, and for this purpose 

 let us take the Dominion only. We 

 are told on the best authority that 

 one hundred millions of damage is 

 done annually to field and forest 

 crops — well, for the sake of argument 

 let us at one fell swoop assume that 

 the figures are wTong, that only 50 

 per cent, of i is the correct amount, 

 viz. — fifty million dollars, then let 

 us assume that field crops are one 

 half of' this total, or tw^enty-five mil- 

 lions — let us proceed and cut the 

 thing in half again, and get down to 

 121-^ millions. W'ithout in the east 

 asserting that the calculations of our 

 exports are wrong, let us figure on the 

 123^2 million basis, surely this s con- 

 servative. If we can assist in con- 

 serving such an amount, or the major 



