INJURY TO GRAIN CROPS. , 69 



INJURY TO WHEAT. 



This crop suffers from the time of sowing until it is stored in the barn 

 or elevator, and even then the Sparrows frequently find a way to get 

 at and devour it. The period during which the greatest damage is done 

 lasts from the time it is " in the milk" until it is threshed, but quite 

 frequently, as the following reports show, considerable damage is done 

 on newly sown fields. 



George Wyckoff, of Mears, Oceana County, Mich., writes: 



I have heard several complaints from farmers of its working on new-sown wheat. 

 (October 7, 1886. Present about three years.) 



James P. Melzer, of Milford, Hillsborough County, X. H., writes: 



If very abundant it would consume the grain as planted. It pulls it up for a few 

 days after it comes up. (August 28, 1886. Present about ten years.) 



A. H. Mundt, of Fairbury, Livingston County, 111., writes: 



It loves wheat grains and many other kinds which it scratches out and eats. (Oc- 

 tober 6, 1886. Present five or six years.) 



Edward T. Keim, of Dubuque, Iowa, writes: 



Every seed that is not well covered is at once detected and eaten. (August 19. 1886. 

 Present about ten years.) 



Dr. A. P. Sharp, of Baltimore, Md., writes: 



Being here the year round they destroy the fall sowing of wheat and other grain, 

 and are at work on the young grain in the spring. I have killed them in the fall up to 

 December, and have seldom failed to find their craws full of wheat, showing that they 

 must destroy much of the seed wheat, for I can think of no other way of getting it. 

 I have often seen at least fifty on a shock of wheat, as they go in flocks when the 

 young are about three-fourths grown. (February 16, 1887.) 



It seems almost superfluous to cite here any instances of the destruc- 

 tion of wheat in the field, as the reader can turn directly to the evidence 

 under the head of grain crops, and read page after page of the most 

 positive proof that the Sparrow does injure wheat most seriously. The 

 absurdity of the claim that Sparrows are confined to cities and large 

 towns is shown over and over again by this evidence, for scores of wit- 

 nesses testify to serious losses of grain on fields at a distance from any 

 large city, although it is doubtless true that the injury is generally 

 greatest within a radius of ten miles from a large town or city. The 

 following examples of testimony on this point are suggestive. 

 From George Sibbald, of Aberdeen, Brown County, Ohio: 

 My farm is so situated as to be the nearest feeding-grounds for great numbers of 

 Sparrows, as there is a village on one side and a city in front. The Sparrows at this 

 writing are coming by thousands to feed on the wheat. (June 10, 1887.) 



From Jason E. Nichols, Lansing, Mich. : 



It leaves the city in flocks, and eats wheat as it grows in the field, and 

 stands in the stack before threshing. (August 26, 1886.) 



From George P. Lowell, of San Francisco, Cal.: 



In the fall of the year it migrates to grain fields in the immediate vie 

 City. (June, 1887. Present more than ten years.) 



