120 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
tite, destroying the seeds which other¬ 
wise would cover the earth and quintuple 
the farmer's toil—and the mule’s. 
Take the quail, the bobwhite, for exam¬ 
ple. Dr. S. F. Judd of the biological sur¬ 
vey reports having examined the stom¬ 
achs of thirteen quail, and that these 
contained 5,584 weed seeds; he also re¬ 
ports that on another occasion 801 stom¬ 
achs of these birds were examined, gath¬ 
ered from twenty-one different states, it 
being found that slightly more than one- 
half their contents was composed of 
seeds, chiefly of weeds, some sixty differ¬ 
ent species being represented. It was 
found that not less than 1,500 such seeds 
had been devoured at a single meal, and 
that some stomachs contained as many as 
3,000 or 5,000 seeds. A thousand crab- 
grass seeds were found in the stomach of 
a single quail, and 10,000 pigweed seeds 
in that of another. Dr. Judd computes 
that the bob whites in Virginia consume 
not less than 573 tons of weed seeds in a 
single winter. 
The mourning dove is also a valuable 
assistant to the farmer in this regard. 
An examination of hundreds of stomachs 
showed that from 60 to 70 per cent of the 
food of this graceful and grieving bird 
is composed of the seeds of weeds; “in a 
single stomach were found 7,500 seeds of 
the yellow wood sorrel, in another 6,400 
seeds of barn grass or foxtail." The lin¬ 
net, which is accused, and not without 
reason, of eating and injuring fruit, 
nevertheless was found to have 80 per 
cent of its stomach contents composed of 
the seeds of weeds, most of them nox¬ 
ious. The food of the red winged black¬ 
bird is chiefly the seeds of weeds, as is 
that of the sparrows, of which there are 
some forty varieties. Mr. F. E. L. Beal of 
the Biological Survey, once computed 
that a single species of sparrow, the tree 
sparrow, in a single state, Iowa, consumed 
1,750,000 pounds, or 875 tons, of weed 
seeds in a single season. 
Now, how many field hands, working 
with the hoe at $1.5° P er day, would be 
required to exterminate the miserable 
harvest of 875 tons of weed seeds in the 
state of Iowa if any considerable portion 
of these had sprouted and grown? And 
how much, then, do the farmers of Iowa, 
owe the tree sparrows of that state for a 
single season’s service? And if they can¬ 
not, and need not, pay this debt in coin, 
what measure of gratitude and of protec¬ 
tion do they owe these feathered friends, 
of this and other varieties. 
2. A still more important service to 
our farmers is rendered by the birds 
through the destruction by them of in¬ 
jurious insects. 
I hold in my hand a letter from Dr. 
T. S. Palmer of the bureau of biological 
survey at Washington, regarding the re¬ 
port which is now being prepared for the 
National Conservation Commission, and 
which is soon to be published, on the in¬ 
jury done our agricultural interests by in¬ 
sects. Dr. Palmer states that Dr. L. O. 
Howard, chief of the Bureau of Ento¬ 
mology, estimates “the total annual loss 
of all kinds caused by insects, including 
injury to crops, garden truck, forests, do¬ 
mesticated animals and health,” at the 
stupendous figure of $1,200,000,000. An 
annual loss on account of insect depreda¬ 
tions of above $13 for every man, woman 
and child in our population; a loss each 
year exceeding by more than 25 per 
cent the total public debt of the United 
