Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1897-04-29
AGRlCULT UJRAL HINTS
FARMERS AND Y BIRDS,

FARMERS AND BIRDS.
Why the Feathcred visitor. should
Be Carefully Protected.
Inc farmer who pretends to keep
up with the times" provides himself
"ith all the modern appliances which
are adapted to his business.
Ii part Of the land is marsh, he will
onderlay it with the most approved
system OF drainage; il it has not been
properly cultivated, he buys the best
subsoil plows in order that the riches
winch lie. just below the surface may
ce brought to light. The fertil-
lzers which he thinks best adapted to
the crop which he wishes to cultivate
are procured and applied with lavish
hand; knowing as he does that this ex-
penditure will repay him, perhaps,
hundred fold. The enterprising farm
er calls to his aid not only all the i'm
proved tools and improvements for cul-
ti'ation, irrigation and protection, but
lnVokes also all the forces of nature,
which can in any way assist him. He
u1ts the subsoil and invites the air to
help him pulverize it ;he erects wind
0aaA and asks the wind to aid in rails
ing the water with which to irrigate;
he digs bitches, and calls upon the wa
ter. which the wind power has lifted,
TO do its part in nourishing the parched
earth. Thus his vegetables, his grain
and his grasses, through an intelligent
Use OF natures forces, spring up and
t1ourish for time; but only to meet
new dangers. Now the insects ap-
spear upon the scene and the aspect
changes.
Gan it be that the farmer has put him
self TO all this great expenditure of la
Dor, tools. material, and time, only to
be thwarted at last? 1t certainly looks
So. But nature, which was responsible
for the danger, now provides the remedy
and that remedy is the birds, which
come in regular order each spring. al
most as regular as the seasons. In the
'Bfgelow Papers" this reference is made
to the blackbirds in "a New England
Spring."
''F>ust come the blackb1rds clatterin' in
tall trees.
AN settlin' things in windy congresses
Queer politicians. though. for I'll be
skinned,
Eff all on 'em don't head against the wind"
Then the blackbirds are soon fol-
lowed by others, and when the proper
time comes each family does it's full
duty, and the insects are obliged to
succumb. 1t is stated by competent au
thority that the red-winged blackbirds
destroyed in a single locality more
than 16,000,0OO,0OO insects during one
season. The blackbird does not rival
Patti as singer, but it does attend
strictly to business; and its business
(like that of an entomologist) is bugs.
But long before this, other birds have
been working for the farmer, searching
all the hidden places, under the bark of
trees, about old stumps, amidst the
moss and dead leaves, and in other
places which the farmer never dreams
OF, for the concealed larvae" where the
embryo insects are thus destroyed by
the<million. One of the most industri-
GUS of these early workers is the
Brown Creeper," which searches every
tree, as if it had a special contract to
secure certain number of specimens
OF larvae" every week. Thus does this
bird (like may others) ''take time by the
forelock" and destroy millions of in
sects before they have chance to
emerge from this first stage of their ex-
3stence.
But we must not forget our old friend
the robin, of which it is said:
by some name or other,
All men who know him, call him brother"
The robin is more than brother to
the farmer, for, by his activity in de-
vouring insects, he sometimes benefits
the farmer more than could q real
brother.
Have the farmers any adequate idea
of the value of the services rendered
them by the birds? The best author
ity states that the birds effect saving to
the country each year of not less than
800, 100000. The farmer should be the
birds best friend and stanch defend
er, for it is the birds alone which stand
between the farmer and the loss of
his crops. But" argues some plea
yune tiller of the soil, 'tbe birds eat
my cherries, and the crows pull up my
corn. and I'm bound to kill 'em.''
The Smithsonian Institution long
ago sent out warning to the farmers
of the country regarding the impending
extinction of the birds, and the dire
full results which are sure to follow.
When the last bird yields it's life to
the pot hunter, or is offered up to sat
isfy the demands of that tyrant, Dame
Fashion, then, and Only. then, will