

ATTRACTING BIRDS TO RESERVATIONS. 9 



PARKWAYS, BOULEVARDS, AND ROADSIDES. 



There exists in most parts of the United States either a supersti- 

 tion, a conviction, or a legal requirement that roadsides be shorn of 

 their vegetation at least once a year. The result is that most country 

 roads are very uninviting in summer. Hot and gray with dust, the 

 highway stretches away before the traveler, often without a single 

 tree to break the monotony of the view or afford relief from the rays 

 of the sun. This baldness is brought about chiefly by two causes: 

 (1) Fear that the roadside will unduly increase weeds and insect 

 and rodent pests, and (2) lack of public spirit. 



Fortunately, we have in this country examples of well-kept park- 

 ways and boulevards which border cultivated lands. Their ample 

 parking is grown to grass and embellished with herbaceous flowers, 

 shrubs, and trees. Yet the farm lands they border are neither 

 overwhelmed by weeds nor devastated by insects and rodents. 



The question of roadsides propagating vast numbers of noxious 

 weeds may be viewed hi more than one light. For instance, the 

 mowing of waysides for long series of years has not done away with 

 the need of cultivating crops; indeed it can not, for cultivation is 

 necessary for other reasons (as loosening, aeration, and water con- 

 servation) than the destruction of weeds. Furthermore, the amount 

 of cultivation customarily given crops is sufficient to control all the 

 weeds the land will grow, and this number is generally present de- 

 spite the razing of roadside growths. On the other hand, the lack of 

 verdure and shade and the general dreariness of roadsides make it 

 very desirable that a different treatment of these most extensive 

 public parkings be adopted. Placing vines upon fences and planting 

 numerous shrubs and shade trees 1 along the way will not only render 

 the roads more attractive but will tend to keep down the dust. 



So far as the effect upon birds is concerned, there can be no doubt 

 that suppression of roadside vegetation is a potent factor in restricting 

 their numbers. The same can be said of fence rows, which to an 

 ever increasing degree are made to occupy the minimum of space; 

 farmers may gain a planting row about every field by the destruc- 

 tion of vegetation along fences, but they lose the services of the birds, 

 their best allies in fighting insects. Shrubby fence rows are among 

 the best harbors and nesting places of small birds, and it is certain 

 that encouraging an abundance of birds to live on farms is a profitable 

 policy. It is greatly to be desired, therefore, that more be done 

 to beautify roadsides and fence rows, not only as a measure to con- 

 tribute to the comfort and pleasure of man but also substantially to 

 increase a great economic asset— the bird population of the country. 



1 In plantings of this nature, it will be well to omit the common barberry, which serves as an alternate 

 host for wheat rust: and wild cherry, which is so favorable a nursery for tent caterpillars. 



