The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-08-25
Keep IL sacred for the BIRDS,

"My neighbors," said my philosophc
friend, ''are the cause of more than half
themjury my crops receive from caterpillars
and other insects. They will not allow
the birds harbor Of wood and shrubbery
upon their own grounds; and they shoot
those which l endeavor to entice by offering
them shelter in my farm. 1t is strange
they cannot understand the mischievous
character OF their operations of smoothing
and grubbing. That little rising ground
you see before you, covered with trees and
shrubs, is hardly more than bare rock. It
occupies about one-eighth of an acre but
no other possible use could be made of it
except as quarry. The little grove or
coppice that stands upon it is the most
beautiful object in sight from my house. |
have never allowed it to be disturbed. or
frequented by social assemblages. | keep
it sacred for the use of birds and it is a
perfect aviary. The birds that feed upon
the destructive insects that inlest nv
grounds are raised in that temple of the
gods, which is watered by numerous little
springs that ooze from the crevices of the
rock. While they are rearing their young,
all species, even if they live exclusively
upon seeds after they have left their nest, feed
Their offspring upon Larvae, which they col
lect from the nearest ground that affords
them supply. Hence, consider that bare
rock, with its trees and shrubbery, the
mos; profitable division Of my farm, from
the shelter it affords the birds, which are.
in an important sense, my most profitable
Stock"
have often thought of my neighbours
remarks, especially when have observed
the diligence of our farmers in destroying
upon their grounds every acceptable harbor
for the birds. When we are traversng
wood, II we discover an apple-tree growing
IN little clearing or open space, we find it
invariably exempt from the ravages of the
common appleborer. The same exemption
Is observed in those fruit-lrees that stand
very near wild wood, or any wood con-
tanning q spontaneous underground. The
explanation of this fact, is, that the wood
affords harbor to the birds that destroy
these insects in oil their forms. Orchards
and gardens, on the contrary, which are To-
Gated at any considerable distance from
wood, have not this security. Robins, it is
true, are very abundant in orchards, which
are their breeding places; but robins, though
the most useful birds that are known to
exist, take all their food from the ground.
They destroy vast quantities of cutworms
and chrysalids buried in the soil, but they
take no part Of their insect food from the
trees. The birds that perform this work
are the sylvias, wood peckers, creepers,
and other species that live only in woods
and thickets. Hence, an orchard that is
nearly surrounded by wild wood ofmuch
extent is not badly infested by borers and
other injurious insects. Fta
All species of insects multiply in cult
waited grounds; while the birds, with few
exceptions, that feed upon them, can find
nursery and protection only in the woods.
"The locust, Says George p Marsh, (Which
ravages tke East with its voracious armies,
is bred in vast open plains, which admit
the full heat of the sun to hasten the
Matching of the eggs. gather no moisture
to destroy them, and halb0r no birds 10
feed upon their LARGE. 1t is only since
the telling of the forests Of Asia Minor and
Cyrene that the locust has been so fear
fully destructive in those countries and
the grasshopper, which now threatens to
be almost as great a pest to the agriculture
of North American soils, breeds in seri-
ously injurious numbers only where q wide
extent of surface is bare of woods"
Some men destroy trees and shrubbery
in their borders, because they are supposed
to harbor insects; but if this be true, it is
because they are not sufficient in extent to
shelter the birds that feed upon them.
The insects that multiply in our lands de-
post their eggs, some III the soil, some
upon branches Of trees and upon fences
and buildings. They are nowise depend
ent on a wild growth Of wood and shrub
berry. These pests of agriculture need
nothing better than the under edge of d
clapboard or single, whereupon to sus-
pend their cocoons or lay their eggs. SO
minute are the objects that will afford
them all the conveniences they need, when
Matching, and when passing through all
their transformations, till they become
perfect insects, that no artilice or
industry Of man can deprive them
of their nurseries. or apprecably les
sen their numbers. All inventions and
appliances used to rid the trees and grounds
of these pests never destroy more than
one in million of their whole number. 1t
is not in the power of man, with all his
science, unasssted by BIRDS, to prevent the
MULTIPLICATION of insects from being the
cause of his own humiliation; but the far
mer, when he destroys the border shrub
berry in his fields, and the coppice and wood
on his hills, exterminates the birds by
hosts, while the mischevous boy with his
gun destroys only few individuals. The
clipped hedge-row, which is often substi-
tuted for border Of wild shrubbery, may
assist in breeding insects; but the birds
never build their nests in hedge-row, UNI
ess it be long-neglectel one.
Very few species build their nests in the
trees and shrubbery of our gardens, unless
they are near a wood. In that case the
cat-bird often nestles in the garden, that,
during the rearing of its young, it may be
near the grounds that produce Larvae.
Most of the woodpeckers, the sylvia, and
the small thrdshes, including some of our
most valuable birds, cannot rear their
young except in wild wood; yet all
these, solitary as they are in their habits,
increase under favorable circumstances
with the multiplication of insects conse-
quent upon the culture of the soil. 1t may
be affirmed as an indisputable truth, that if
their increase were not checked by the
sporting habit of men and boys, and the
clearing and grubbing habits of "modern
farmers,' birds of everv species would
increase in the same ratio with the multi
plication of their insect food, and proper
tionally diminish their ravages. - Woods
and By. Ways of Ne,o England.
1 II FHu