A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
555 
Protect the Birds 
If birds are protected and encouraged to nest about the farm and 
gat den, they will do their share in destroying noxious insects and weeds, 
a h° L,rs spent in putting up boxes for Bluebirds, Martins, and 
Wrens will prove a good investment. Birds are protected by law in 
many states, but it remains for the agriculturists to see that the laws are 
faithfully observed. 
The practical value of birds in controlling insect pests should be more 
generally recognized. It may be an easy matter to exterminate the birds 
in an orchard or grain field, but it is an extremely difficult one to control 
the insect pests. It is certain, too, that the value of our native Sparrows 
as weed destroyers is not appreciated. Weed seed forms an important 
item of the winter food of many of these birds, and it is impossible to 
estimate the immense numbers of noxious weeds which are thus an- 
nually destroyed. — F. E. L. Beal, B.S. 
IX 
HOW WE CAN PROTECT BIRDS 
HOUSING AND FEEDING 
We can help birds simply by not hurting them and leaving 
them as free as possible to live out their joyous lives ; but we 
can do much more if we will leave some little bushy nooks 
about the farm or garden, where they may nest in private, 
place food in convenient places during the long, cold winter 
months for those birds that remain with us, and make it a rule 
never to raise more kittens than we need to keep barn and 
house free of rats or than we can feed and care for. 
Silly people, who shirk responsibility, often say: “Oh, I 
couldn’t think of drowning a kitten ; ” and yet they will let 
dozens of them grow up unfed and uncared for, or leave a litter 
by the roadside, until in many places a breed of gaunt, half- 
wild cats roam about destroying the eggs and young of song 
birds, game birds, and domestic fowls alike. 
A nice, comfortable house or barn cat is one thing, but the 
savage outcast is quite another, and should no more be let live 
than a weasel or skunk. 
HOUSING AND FEEDING 
When places become thickly settled, and villages grow into 
towns and towns into cities, one of the first things that troubles 
the father and mother of a family is to find house room, a suit- 
able place to live, that shall be healthful for the children and 
