The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-02-21
SAVE THE BIRDSI
W. I. KIvETT.
Liberty, N. O.

Correspondence Of the Progressive Farmer.
According TO the census Of 1890 there
were In the United States the enor
nous number of 1864, GAL farms, with
q total acreage OF 623. 21s. GIG. The
valuation of these farm lands is placed
at the sum OF $13. 279, 252, GAG. The labor
Of the farmer and fruit grower is re-
paid by products to the value Of g..
AGO. 1O7, Asa per year, but it is said that
insects and rodents destroy annually
to the astonishing money value OF
5000. 900, 900, even with the birds as
protectors. Just imagine what the
additional loss would be were all the
birds destroyed. They r fast being
exterminated and unless that large
class Of the population, the agricultur
lists, awaken to the gravity Of the situa
ton and absolutely demand that no
more birds be killed for any purpose
whatever, they will soon feel the short.
sightedness in actual dollars and cents.
A difference Of one per cent. in the
value Of the farm products amounts to
the enormous sum Of $24 6O1, OLA The
birds are now killed for two purposes
only; for food and millinery rna
ments. For food, only a very few are
shot, j e., the game birds, and those
only during restricted portions Of the
year, so they do not materially affect
the result. There ia no excuse for
shooting the second class of birds, as
their value as MILNE ornaments is
far less than their value as insect de-
stroyers. Besides this, contrast the
difference in the money value Of the
two interests that r opposed TO each
other. By the c5nsus of 1890 we find
that the total capital invested IN the
millinery and lace trade is $22. 939 430,
and the cost OF the materials used that
year was S27 345. lis Place the two
interests side by side, thirteen billions
as against twenty three millions.
Again, an annual product Of 2 212 mil
lions as against q millions. / ask,
and I wish l could shout my question
in q voice so loud and clear that every
man, woman and child in this broad
land Of ours could hear it, Have the
m~illiners, with their pRltry Interests,
any right to jsopRrdize the safety OF
the agricultural interests? Ponder! s.
difference OF only one per centum In
the annual product of our farms end
gardens amounts TO more than the en-
tire millinery and lece interest In the
United States. Will the farmers and
fruit growers remain silent much
longer and permit the birds, their best
friends, to be killed that a trif.ng in
terest like the millinary trade may
make a few more dollars at the sacri.
fee of so much that is beautiful, az
we'll as of economic valueG
KuoH wing how birds are being
diminished, and also how very valuable
they are from every point of view, let
US endeavor to discover some method
by which they may be protected. Be.
fore Christ 1451 years, when the cid
Hebrew lawglver, Moses, formulated a
code for the children Of Israel, he en-
acted the following: eff q birds nest
chance &c be before thee in the way in
any tree, or on the ground, whether
they be young one o eggs, and the
dam sitting upon the young, or upon
the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam
with the young; but thou shalt in any
wise let the dam go, that it may be
well with thee, and that thou mayest
prolong thy days" That was a plain
common sense direction, which l do
not think has ever been repealed.
Probably ever since the day that first
law was enacted there have been laws
OF some sort for the protection of birds.
At the present time the statute books
II full of them; some are good and
some are worthless, but none Of them
are observed, as they should be, and
they are usually conflicting in their re-
Quirements. What Is necessary is a
uniform law throughout the United