St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-05-02
PROTECT USEFUL BIRDS.

d1fhculty.
PROTECT USEFUL BIRDS.
With April comes many beautiful
birds, attractivein their varied plum
age and melodious songs fit accom-
paniments of the gladstone spring
season. They are not only orna
mental and musical, but very useful
to the farmer and gardener, for most
of them are great insect deStrOyers-
protectors alike of grains, fruits,
flowers, and vegetables. A French
naturalist truly observes that the
Almighty created birds to protect
the grain, vegetables, trees and fruit
against the ravages of the insect tribe.
For every bird that dies millions of
insects are spared from death, and
millions of insects mean famine" 1t
should be remembered that without
birds successful agriculture would be
impossible. They will annihilate, in
a few months, a greater number of
destructive insects than human hands
can accomplish in the same number
of years.
The time is not distant when the
soil cultivators, will more fully realize
the advantage and necessity of pro-
tecting and encouraging all insect
destroying birds. Among the most
useful for this purpose may be class
ed the swallow, blue-bird, wren, mar
tin, finch, and several others that are
at home in most parts of the coun-
try. Let the great usefulness of the
attractive and pleasant warblers be
gratefully recognized by our rural
friends (aS we'll as by city, village, or
suburban cultivators of gardens),
especially during the nesting season,
for there can be no doubt as to the
benefits conferred by insect-eating
birds during that period. By the
way, some one has made the happy
and just now timely suggestion that
a few hours can be proftably spent
at this season in making boxes where
in birds may build their nests. Such
boxes may be variously placed about
the premises the trunks of shade
trees, on poles along the fences, on
limbs of fruit trees and on the sides
or tops of out-buildings. 1t pays to
thus encourage the destrOyers of our
insect enemies. Let the many rural
boys who read the Independent act
upon this hint and see what they can
do for the beautiful and useful feath-
cred sOngsters.- Independent.
APPLIED SCIENCE AND THE AGRI-
CULTURE OF THE FUTURE.
The average yield of wheat in the
oh ht,c I1aIc
per acre. II is commonly sOwn with
a drill, which deposits the seed in
rows eight inches apart; eight rows
are commonly planted at each turn;
an average of one and a half bushels
of SEED is used per acre one man with
team will plant eight acres per day,
and this being done in September, the
field has no further attention until
the reaper is put iii the following
July to gather whatever harvest
Providence has seen fit to send as
reward for the negligence of the hus-
bandman.
Professor Blount, of the Colorado
Agricultural college, having first
made an elaborate study of the hab
its and needs of the wheat plant,
conducted Il series of experiments in
its cultivation with the following re-
suits:
First he planted upon an exact
square acre seven and onehalf pounds
of hand-picked wheat in rows of
eighteen inches apart, and at harvest
threshed out sixty-seven bushels;
again, upon One-fourth of an acre he
planted thirty-twO ounces of select
ed seed, and the product was eighteen
bushels; and again, upon seventy-six
square feet he planted seventy-siX
kernels of eXtra-fine seed, weighing
forty-five grains, and the product
was ten and one-half pounds, or
nearly at the rate of one hundred
bushels per acre.
These results are not more remark
able in the excessive yield from a Civ
en- area than in regard to the yield
from a given portion of seed. Agr1-
cultural discussion too often directs
attention to a result without suffi-
GENTLY analyZing the means by which
it is obtained A pertinent feature
of these experiments is the saving of
an amount of seed which, averaged
upon the entire grain acreage, would
duu ANNUALLY vast Suln 10 Tic
wealth of the nation.
If we should throw into the sea
annually fifty million bushels ofwheat
and proportiOnate amount of the
other cereals, the world would cry
out at our improvidence. Yet if
Professor BlOunt'S conclusions are
cOrrect-and they are supported by
much collateral evidence-we bury
this amount in the ground where it
is not only thrown away, but where
it actually decreases the resultant
crop.
The economic results that would
follow if we should be able to increase
our production even approximately
to the above ratio are too far-reach
ing for the scope of this article. Our
ability to feed an almost limitless in
crease of population would be assur-
ed 1t may be that over-production
would recoil upon ourselves, but we
have already successfully encounter
ed the lowest wheat markets of the
globe, and as increased production
would mean decreased cost, we might
eventually be able to make good our
boast of feeding the world
With a population increasing at
the rate of twenty-five per cent with
every decade, it is hardly probable
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