CHAPTER V. 



AMONG THE WHEAT. 



WITH all our nineteenth-century knowledge, it is 

 cause for surprise that man has learnt to appreciate 

 so little the usefulness of many dumb creatures. 

 Take birds alone for an example. I have no 

 hesitation in saying that, in the present condition 

 of life upon our planet, if it were not for birds 

 many kinds of vegetation could not exist, and the 

 practice of agriculture would be almost impossible, 

 owing to the growth of noxious weeds and the 

 ever increasing abundance of insect life. The vast 

 and constant services rendered by birds to man 

 are but little understood, and even less are they 

 appreciated. Man, in his supreme ignorance, kills 

 and persecutes his feathered friends on every 

 available occasion, and consequently insects and 

 weeds cause much needless destruction among 

 agricultural and horticultural produce. We cannot 

 do better, as we wander through the corn-fields 

 this pleasant summer evening, than to devote an 

 hour or so to the study of this important subject, 

 from the husbandman's as well as from the birds' 

 point of view. 



