BY THE WAYSIDE 
39 
SUGGESTIONS 
This month our state legislature 
meets, as do those of most states. It 
is a busy time for us, for we must 
watch closely every bill concerning 
fish and game, for fear an attempt to 
destroy some of our most useful legis¬ 
lation may succeed. The danger lies 
not in any bad intention of our legisla¬ 
tors, but in their want of special 
knowledge or interest. Here educa¬ 
tion only can help. You teachers can 
do your share in making this work 
easier in future days by arousing a 
proper interest in the subject on 2 ^art 
of your pupils, who are the citizens 
and the legislators of tomorrow. 
At this time of the year, observa¬ 
tions can easily be made how the birds 
that remain with us live largely on 
weed seeds which careless farming and 
gardening has left at their disposal. 
We have just received the following 
letter and are printing it because the 
topic treated is important from sev¬ 
eral points of view. We have an arti¬ 
cle in preparation on the subject of 
The protection of fruit. We are anx¬ 
ious to hear from horticulturalists 
3ven though it may not be possible to 
Dublish all letters received.—Ed. 
My dear Mr. Kremers: 
During the past summer the fruit 
growers complained several times of 
he depredations of robins, especially 
n the raspberry patches and in the 
| iherry orchards. As I do not remem- 
i )er to have seen any more careful es¬ 
* * 
TO TEACHERS 
Other birds may be seen to gather the 
insects (and in our region such insects 
are almost always injurious) from 
e\ en the smallest crevices of tree or 
fence post. 
I o obtain material for supplemen¬ 
tary work in class, write to the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, and ask 
them to send you literature on the 
economic value of birds as weed and 
insecvt destroyers. It will cost ^ou 
nothing. 
Of course general observations on 
birds started earlier should be con¬ 
tinued and children should be espec¬ 
ially urged to learn to recognize well 
the winter birds, including the English 
sparrow both male and female, for be¬ 
fore long the early spring arrivals 
will show up, and the problem will be¬ 
come more complicated. 
timates than those I secured, I thought 
if would be of interest to some of your 
readers to have me set down the 
known facts. In doing so however, I 
want to be understood as thoroughly 
in favor of the robin and its protection. 
Mrs, R. A. I. of Lancaster, Wiscon¬ 
sin, told me about her father’s farm 
where they had many fine cherry 
trees and two wild mulberries. The 
robins and other birds gorged them¬ 
selves on mulberries but never seemed 
to touch the cherries. This relation 
of the birds to the fruit went on for 
several years, but the lady added that 
she, herself, upon discovering how 
