PROTECTION OF FRUIT. 63 
Indian to shoot the birds. Unfortunately the Indian did not discriminate 
between the noxious and harmless species. 
When poisoning is resorted to as a means of defence the destruction 
of many beneficial birds is inevitable. Nevertheless, if the above 
methods are condemned the fruit grower is entitled to ask for an 
effective substitute. A device for the protection of a small number 
of trees, which can be applied on rather short notice, is bird netting. 
This was tested upon cherry trees some years ago at the Indiana 
Agricultural Experiment Station.* The netting was procured at a 
cost of 4 cents per square yard and 75 yards were required per tree, 
the latter having been set six years. The fruit produced in a single 
season paid for the netting, which with careful handling, it is said, 
will last for ten years or more. This method is practicable in the 
case of a few lawn or garden trees, or possibly even in small orchards, 
and is well worth trial by anyone who considers future as well as 
present fruit crops. For it is certain that in destroying grosbeaks 
we end the lives of creatures which do much to check serious insect 
enemies of fruit. In large orchards netting of course can not be used. 
Killing the grosbeaks is a last resort to be tried only when every 
other measure has been tested and failed. It is the less excusable 
because a method is available which, even in the case of large orchards, 
yields far better results. This is the planting here and there of wild 
fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, by means of which almost complete 
protection to cultivated fruit can be assured. 
The chief essential is that the decoy trees shall be early bearing 
species, for it is the universal testimony that almost all of the damage 
done is to early fruit. How this applies in California is made clear 
in the following account of Professor Beal’s experience in Alameda 
County. In the numerous orchards in Cull’s Canyon only one gros- 
beak was seen where a week before, the last few days in May, they 
were common. It was a fine illustration of what has been demon- 
strated before—that the first fruits are the ones most eagerly eaten 
by the birds. When the early cherries were ripening in the orchard 
birds were to be seen on all sides—grosbeaks, orioles, tanagers, linnets, 
and jays, with now and then a blackbird or a flicker; but in June 
only one grosbeak and a few jays were seen, though the later cherries 
were just in perfection and nobody was disturbing the birds. A 
natural question is: Why are the later fruits comparatively immune 
‘to the attacks of birds? It may be urged that the feathered robbers 
get enough, that their appetites flag. While perhaps true of some 
birds, satiety in no way explains the facts concerning the black- 
headed grosbeak, since this bird consumes twice as much fruit in July 
and August as in May, though the quantity secured from cultivated 
“Troop, James, Bull. 53, Dec., 1894, pp. 125-126. 
18848—Bull. 32—08——5 
