ITED^TATES 

 fPARTMENX"' 

 GRICULIUJ 



OFJF.ie 



IKFORMATIO 



■ > it 



) WITH UlTCLE SM'S NATURALISTS 



Reading Time: 10 Minutes. 



U, Q, 



Friday, December 30, 1932 

 FOR BROADCAST USE OIILY 



AMOUNCSIISNT ; We now chat for a few minutes with Uncle Sam's Naturalists 

 atout the Great Out-of-Doors. Toda^y', the Naturalists have a suggestion for 

 farmers, and bird clubs, and school, and 4-H clubs on how they can help 

 protect our useful birds. 



— oOo— 



I ran across two stories the other day that go to show what a wonderful 

 help birds are to the farmer and, in fact, to land owners in general. 



A certain Iowa farmer had a fence row of heavily sodded bluegrass right 

 next to his cornfield. That fence row produced swarms and swarms of grass- 

 hoppers. In one particular srinmer, the grasshoppers chewed "up three rows of 

 corn 40 rods long. The farmer didn't get a single bushel of com from those 

 three rows. 



Well, at that partic\ilar time, that farmer didn't put much faith in 

 what he'd heard about birds protecting crops by destroying insects. But he 

 decided to make a little experiment. 



The following winter he went to town and got some drygoods boxes. He 

 and his boys made those boxes np into bird houses. They put up 21 bird houses- 

 spaced about two rods apart — -all dov/n along the edge of the cornfield. 



Well, the birds took the hint. The following spring, they moved into 



13 of those 21 new houses. Wrens nested in 6 of the new houses bluebirds in 



4 houses and purple martins in 3. 



All summer long the birds feasted on grasshoppers. 



That fall, the farmer harvested 23 bushels of corn from those three 

 rows next to the fence where, the preceding year, he got no corn at all. 



Needless to say, that man had no further doubts about the value of birds. 



A second man this man from Wisconsin gives still further testimony 



of the value of birds to the farmer. He says: 



"I commenced ... over half a century ago, and have fitted my place for a 

 bird paradise, \rith plenty of trees and shrubbery and one acre of lawn. 

 Commencing with a single pair of grackles about 20 years ago, I have now over 

 200.. •, I counted 17 on the first furrow plov/ed this spring. White grubs are 

 about played out , and I have not seen a cutworm in five years." 



Well, in those two particular cases, the birds happened to be feeding on 



