Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-04-22
FARMERS AND BIRDS.
Why TIE Feathcred Visitors should
He Carefully ProfecAed

up with the times" provides himself
with all the modern appliances which
gre adapted to his business.
If part of the land is marsh, he will
underlay it with the most approved
system of drainage; if it has not been
properly cultivated, he buys the best
subsoil plows in order that the riches
which lie just below the surface may
be brought to light. The fertil-
izers 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
err calls to his aid not only all the i'm
proved tools and improvements for cul
tivation, irrigation and protection, but
invokes also all the forces Of nature,
which can in any way assist him. He
lifts the subsoil and invites the air to
help him pulverize il he erects wind
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
| flourish for time; but only to meet
new dangers. Now the insects APP
pear upon the scene and the aspect
| changes.
Can 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
"Bigelow Papers" this reference is made
to the blackbirds in "A New England
Spring."
'Fust come the blackbirds clatterin' in
| tall trees,
An settlin' things In windy congresses
| Queer politicians, though, for I'll be
| skinned,
Eff all on EN- don't head against the wind. l"
| 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. IL is stated by competent au-
thority that the red-winged blackbirds
destroyed in a single locality more
than 16,000,0O0,000 insects during one
season. The blackbird does not rival
Patti as singer, but it does attend
strictly to business; and it's business
| Qike 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 lndustri-
Gus of these early workers is the
Brown Creeper," which searches every
tree, as if it had 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-
| istence.
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 a brother to
the farmer, for, by his activity in de-
vouring insects, he sometimes benefits
| the farmer more than could 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
500, 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, 1.-The birds eat
my cherries, and the crows pull up my
corn. and I'm bound to kill EN-
| The Smithsonian Institution long
| ago sent out a warning to the farmers
| VI the GUILTY. ItSiihlh VIC III pChuiAS
| 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 orly then, will
some farmers see where they have ere
| but it will be too late. The ruin will
lave been wrought. the damage done.
The farmer should see to it that the
boys and girls of his neighborhood al G
taught that the killing of birds, CT
robbery of their nests. is n crime; not
| only an injury to Their neighbors, but
| an actual harm to themselves-for he
| yond all question the destruction of the
birds will cause the boys and girls of
| the present day to weep bitter tears of
repentance later in life. when they real
ize the harm which has been done. and
they will reap the penalty. Under the
old English law land ours as welD "a
| mans house is his CASTLE" and the man
has right to defend his hoDe-even
| IN the extent of killing the r,nn who