90 USEFUL BIRDS. 
CHAPTER II. 
THE UTILITY OF BIRDS IN WOODLANDS. 
Massachusetts contains very little land that can be digni- 
fied by the name of forest. She has practically no forests 
such as are cared for by European States, nor has she any 
extensive primeval wilderness of trees such as still exist on 
some western mountain ranges; nevertheless, a large area 
of the State is forested with coppice ‘growth or seedling . 
trees, which are usually allowed to grow from thirty to fifty 
years, and are then cut for either firewood or lumber. 
While this large area of woodland produces comparatively 
little valuable timber, its aggregate value, as estimated in 
the census of 1895, is twenty-three million, nine hundred 
and thirty-six thousand, three hundred and sixty-two dol- 
lars. It is no exaggeration to say that for the preservation 
of this great woodland estate from the ravages of insects we 
are largely indebted to birds. The service that birds per- 
form in protecting woodland trees is more nearly indispen- 
sable to man than any other benefit they confer on him; for 
the money value of forest trees, while large in the aggre- 
gate, is not ordinarily great enough to pay the owners to 
protect them against their many enemies, even if this were 
possible. The little things of life are the most difficult for 
man to control. The wild animals and venomous serpents 
of the woods he may exterminate; but insects, which are 
even more dangerous to human life or property, will still 
possess the land. Were the natural enemies of forest in- 
sects annihilated, every tree in our woods would be threat- 
ened with destruction, and man would be powerless to 
prevent the calamity. He might make shift to save some 
orchard or shade trees; he might find means to raise some 
garden crops; but the protection of all the trees in all the 
woods would be beyond his powers. Yet this herculean task 
ordinarily is accomplished as a matter of course by birds and 
