PEOTECTION 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 



