6 BULLETIN 396, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



half the land of the farm, leaving an average of 47 acres of land 

 farthest from the buildings not covered by the count. Thus two 

 problems are presented: First, how the 61 acres covered by the 

 census compare with the average farm; and. second, how the re- 

 maining 47 acres compare in bird population with the 61 acres 

 chosen. 



That portion of the average farm covered by the enumerations 

 contained 32 per cent of plowed ground and 10 per cent of hay land, 

 which, according to the 1910 census, is nearly the average percentage 

 for the farms in this section of the United States. There is, however, 

 a great difference in the relative sizes of orchards; these farms con- 

 tained 7.3 per cent of orchard, whereas the average for the North- 

 eastern States is only 1.2 per cent. or. in other words, the area se- 

 lected for the bird enumeration contained six times as many acres 

 of orchard as the average. Each area also contained the farm build- 

 ings with accompanying shade trees, ornamental shrubs, small fruits, 

 and vegetable gardens, forming the most favorable nesting sites 

 on the farm and affording the largest quantity of food per acre. 

 There is no doubt that the average 5 acres immediately surrounding 

 the farm buildings contain more birds' nests than any other 5 cul- 

 tivated acres on the farm. As the farms selected contained orchards 

 larger than the average and as orchards are especially preferred for 

 nesting sites by many kinds of birds, the areas selected evidently 

 have a bird population denser than that of farm lands as a whole. 



During each of the years 1914 and 1915, counts were made on 

 isolated areas of woodland, and the average of all reports in the 

 two years gives a bird population of 187 pairs to each 100 acres, 

 while the farm land supported 122 pairs per 100 acres. It is evi- 

 dent, then, that comparatively small areas of woodland contiguous 

 to cleared and cultivated land offer better attractions as nesting 

 sites than land which is wholly under cultivation, and contain a cor- 

 respondingly larger number of birds' nests. 



The 47 acres not covered by the two-year counts on each of these 

 farms consisted on the average of 14 acres of plowed ground. 6 acres 

 of hay land, 17 acres of woodland, and 10 acres of meadow and 

 pasture. If the 17 acres of woodland contain on the average, as 

 they probably do, 32 pairs of birds, the other 30 acres would have 

 to support a bird population of 26 pairs to give these 47 acres the 

 same bird population per acre as the part of the farm where the 

 buildings are situated. It is not probable that the 30 acres would 

 have 26 pairs, but they may easily have half that number, which, 

 added to the population of the woodland and of the enumeration 

 area, would make a total of 119 pairs on 108 acres, practically an 

 average of 1 pair to the acre for the land in farms in the North- 

 eastern States. 



