BY THE WAYSIDE 
40 4 
well flavored were the mulberries, de¬ 
cided to can some of them one year. 
She covered the trees with cheese 
cloth to beep the birds off and so saved 
her mulberries for canning. But to 
her chagrin, the birds shifted their 
attack at once to the ripening cher¬ 
ries and took more than half. The 
next year the mulberries were left to 
the birds, and the cherries were un¬ 
harmed. 
On my visit to this same lady’s 
farm, July 18th, last, I saw nearly a 
dozen robins actively engaged in pil¬ 
fering her four acres of red and black 
raspberries. All along the rows were 
gobs of seeds disgorged by the birds 
after getting the juice. This is a fa¬ 
miliar sight to every berry grower, as, 
also, the large numbers of injured ber¬ 
ries from which a peck or two had 
been taken. The same conditions ob¬ 
tained in many other berry planta¬ 
tions in Ba.raboo, Sparta, Tomah and 
elsewhere, and in the opinion of the 
growers was more serious for the large 
number of berries injured than for the 
less number eaten whole. Some of the 
birds kept at work all day long. I 
noticed young birds of the year as late 
as 6:30 p. m., one of these speckled 
youngsters being unwilling to get out 
of my way. He would not have done 
so when I was almost upon him if it 
had not been for a half grown pullet 
who chased after him for some small 
worm he had just picked up. This 
Lancaster lady thinks she loses whole 
quarts of berries bat is thoroughly 
convinced that the birds clean up most 
of her fruit pests while moving about 
her fruit farm. My own observations 
lead me to believe that the birds might 
have had something, to do with the lo¬ 
cal great scarcity of blackberry and 
raspberry leaf miners, raspberry canc 
girdlers and plant lice. 
Very truly yours, 
ALFRED C. BURRILL, 
Lecturer on the Econ. Re¬ 
lations of Birds. 
A WORD TO THE LEGISLATORS. 
We do not know whether or not there 
will come before you at this session r. 
bill designed to make an important 
change in our statutes relating to fist 
and game. It has been our experience 
hitherto that almost every session hac 
before it some bill of importance relat¬ 
ing to fish and game; and such as re 
lated to birds were of course of specia 
interest to us. We are making an effort 
to deal in this issue with the more im 
portant branches of bird-life which are 
subject to legislative action. We wisl 
to emphasize here that we firmly be 
lieve that a law permitting spring oi 
summer shooting is a sure means of ex ! 
terminating our avifauna, and that we 
consider our belief to be a sound deduc 
tion from indisputable facts. Wiscon 
sin holds an enviable position in tla 
matter of the protection of its bird 
life. It rests with you, the legislator 
to uphold or to destory our State’? 
achievement. 
Beginning with the February numbej 
we offer the remaining issues, five h 
all, at the subscription rate of fifteei 
cents. By this reduction we hope t( 
secure the introduction of By the Way 
side to persons, and especially to child 
ren and school-teachers, who do noi 
now subscribe to it. We trust that tht| 
members of the Society will aid us. 
