ieee DUE BsO Ne BU Lele WTI N 7 
From the Editor’s Desk 
OUR POISONED FOOD SUPPLY 
IN THE PRECEDING ISSUE of The Audubon Bulletin (No. 124, pp. 20-21), 
under the heading of “Our Poisoned Planet,’ we published a review of 
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. It seemed to us that this book would dis- 
courage or reduce the wanton misuse of poisonous chemicals in the months 
to come. But evidently the worst habits are the hardest ones to eradicate. 
In the February 1963 issue of Successful Farming, pp. 75, 121, a Mr. 
Petty recommends spreading 1 to 2 pounds of aldrin or heptachlor to the 
acre. Last year, 8,000,000-plus acres of corn were so treated; it is not known 
whether these acres were fall plowed. The fire-ant program in the South, 
in which ¥% lb. of heptachlor was applied per acre, revealed heavy delayed 
losses in song and game birds. What will happen if Mr. Petty’s proposal 
becomes a regular practice? , 
If you have read Silent Spring, you will know that even small quan- 
tities of aldrin and heptachlor are most dangerous in food products. The 
Department of Agriculture claims that heptachlor and dieldrin on forage 
make the plants unsuitable for livestock feed. To our mind, the spreading 
of these toxic chemicals over food crops, or land that is used to grow food, 
should be made a crime. We should all support the proposed legislation 
to control use of pesticides in Illinois, which the Pesticides Control Com- 
mittee, led by Elton Fawks, has ready for introduction in Springfield. We 
should urge all of our Legislators to read Silent Spring. 
If you do not have a copy, Silent Spring may be ordered for $5.00 plus 
postage from Mr. LeRoy Tunstall, I.A.S. Book Chairman, 323 East Wesley 
St., Wheaton, Ill. Another good book to get on this subject is Our Synthetic 
Environment by Lewis Herber — see the review elsewhere in this issue. 
A fi fl fl 
OPERATION BLUEBIRD 
The following article is condensed from the Bulletin of the Jamestown Audubon Society, 
Jamestown, New York. We are indebted to Mr. LeRoy Tunstall of Wheaton, Illinois, for 
calling this article to our attention. It contains information of interest to anyone who 
maintains bluebird nesting boxes. 
MR. W. L. HIGHHOUSE, the “Bluebird Man” of Warren, Pa., has compiled 
an interesting report on the nesting of Eastern Bluebirds in the area near 
the Pennsylvania-New York border. The summer of 1962 brought fine, good 
news: bluebirds suceeded in raising 432 young, an increase of 60% over 1961. 
Initial nesting of bluebirds was observed in 62 nesting. boxes with a 
total of 297 eggs laid. Of these, 265 eggs hatched and all 265 bluebirds 
fledged, which means that they grew large enough to fly from: the nests on 
their own. 
Second nesting was observed in 51 bluebird boxes with a total of 210 
eggs laid. Of these, 167 young hatched and all 167 fledged. Hence, in the 
boxes under observation, 432 eggs hatched and 432 bluebirds reached 
maturity, meaning that no young died in the nest. This remarkable success 
is ascribed to spraying the eggs once or twice with a mild flea powder to 
control the larvae of the birdnest screw-worm fly, the genus Apaulina. 
