58 Bird Day Book 



BIRDS ARE THE FARMER'S BEST FRIENDS. 



ANYONE who has read recent estimates of the decrease in 

 insectivorous birds and the increase of herbivorous insects 

 readily believe that as the mammals succeeded reptiles insects will 

 soon possess the earth unless some agency is discovered to check 

 their increase. 



We are prone to bear the usual and slowly accumulating bur- 

 dens with dull resignation and patience. The life and property 

 losses and taxes that are inherited and constant we take for granted. 

 It is the concentrated and unusual calamities that shock and excite 

 the spirit of opposition and the desire to prevent a recurrence. 

 By the sinking of the Titanic 1,300 lives were lost, and the world 

 was filled with fear and sympathy. Tuberculosis claims 190,000 

 victims a year in this country and pneumonia 160,000, yet we bear 

 this awful loss of life with the passing comment that it is a great 

 pity. 



The San Francisco earthquake destroyed property to the value 

 of $400,000,000. This loss was the superinducing cause of the 

 panic of 1907, which reduced values by the billions. If it were 

 known today that the country would suffer another such loss within 

 its borders in the year 1913, the wheels of progress the world over 

 would halt in sympathetic fear. 



A short time ago the farmers of the country, especially in the 

 Northwest, were much agitated because of the proposed reciprocity 

 agreement with Canada. The loss which they, together with other 

 farmers of the country, will suffer this year and which will benefit 

 no one will exceed by hundreds of millions of dollars the total value 

 of the entire wheat crop of the nation. 



As long ago as 1904 Dr. C. L. Marlatt, basing his estimates on 

 the crop reports of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 asserted that the loss to the agricultural industries in that year 

 caused by insects alone could be conservatively placed at $795,- 

 100,000, and this estimate does not include a dollar for the use of 

 insecticides. 



Mr. Forbush, in his most comprehensive book entitled "Useful 

 Birds," maintains that the insect pests destroy agricultural products 

 to the value of $800,000,000 a year. We use large numbers so 



