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 



