No. 21, PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE. 263 
the apple and pear, the plum, peach and cherry are in blossom seem- 
ing to revel carelessly amid the sweet-scented and delicately tinted 
blosscms, but never faltering in their good work. They peer into 
the crevices of the bark, scrutinize each leaf, and explore the very 
heart of the buds, to detect, drag forth, and destroy those tiny 
creatures, Singly insignificant, collectively a scourge, which prey 
upon the hopes of the fruit grower, and which, if undisturbed, would 
bring his care to nought.” 
The birds of this group, with a few exceptions, are small, averag- 
ing about five inches in length-and eight inches in extent; they are 
neat and trim in build, active, energetic in movement, entertaining 
in song, and mostly conspicuously marked with white, yellow or 
black. The Chestnut-sided warbler is a common summer resident 
in many sections of Pennsylvania, and during migrations it occurs 
generally throughout the Commonwealth. Unfortunately the showy 
plumage of warblers, tanagers, orioles, blue-birds and numerous 
other of our feathered friends has during recent years brought about 
a great demand among milliners for the skin of these and numer- 
ous Other species. Statistics show, it is claimed, that not less than 
5,000,000 birds are every year sacrificed to please the vanity of the 
fair sex. The destruction of the insect-devouring birds, for millinery 
purposes is a serious menace to the agricultural interests of this 
State and nation, and every effort should be made to stop it. 
The plum crop in many regions of Pennsylvania is almost a total 
failure because of the ravages of the curculio, a small beetle, and the 
fungus known as black knot. Yet if orchardists would heed advice 
and follow recommendations of our scientific men who give special 
attention to the economic relations of insects, fungi and birds, plum 
culture could, no doubt, be conducted with much greater satisfaction 
and profit. 
During recent years there has been, we are told, a very great in- 
crease both in the number and virulence of the parasitic fungi and 
insect pests with which the farmer and horticulturist has to contend. 
Besides these enemies the cultivator of the soil has to combat certain 
species of birds and mammals which annually do much damage to 
the cultivated crops. The destruction of forests, both by lumbermen 
and devastating forest fires—especially the latter—which, according 
to the reports received by the Iorestry Commissioncr, Dr. Rothrock, 
from the farmers of Pennsylvania, cost them last year over $45,000 
to put out, and the loss to timber and other personal property 
amounted to a much larger sum, and caused, it is claimed by well- 
informed naturalists, many insects to abandon their habitations in 
the forests, old slashings and bark peelings, and take up their abodes 
about cultivated lands, thus causing, in certain sections of the 
