The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-05

oL LHdl lIIllcteu Dy tlle ppl-HuA'tS4S S
 These facts are now recognized by ln-
 telligent agriculturists, many of whom
 instead of allowing the birds to be shot
 for taking a share of the crops they
 Eelp to cultivate, plant cherries, mul-
 berries and other fruits on purpose fol
 them.
 The value of wild birds to the farmer
 is not a matter of theory; 1t IS
 fact which has been demonstrated by
 careful investigation and at great ex-
 pense by the Department of Agricul-
 ture at Washington. For many years a
 number of the leading naturalists of
 the country devoted their best efforts
 to finding out beyond peradventure,
 which birds were of benefit to the farm
 CTS, and which were injurious. These
 gentlemen took nothing for granted, ac-
 cepted no hearsay evidence as final, but
 gave each species trial, if anything
 more impartial than it would have re-
 celved in court of law. Before pro-
 nouncing verdict, they examined the
 most direct evidence which could pos
 Slbly be advanced, viz contents of the
 stomachs of individual birds. Not just
 one stomach, nor ten nor hundred
 stomachs, but thousands and tens of
 thousands of them collected from all
 parts of the country and at all seasons fot the year. Of the birds passed upon
 about forty species only one, the house
 sparrow, was convicted of crimes which
 warranted the infiiction of the death
 penalty. All the rest were found to
 have redeeming features. and most Of
 them proved themselves highly benef-
 cial to the community
 I Of course some cases were found
 wherein, at certain times of the year.
 individual farmers suffered loss, but
 such cases were rare, and where the
 gains and losses were summed up over
 9 number of years, the birds nearly al- ways had good balance to their credit. 1 It was found that the complaints of l farmers and gardeners often arose as result of inaccurate or imperfect obser- i VatiGn For example, many farmer is | quick enough to notice a hawk when | the latter makes a descent on his poul- try yard, yet he is very apt to overlook | the same bird while it is preying on | scores of mice rats and other destruc- tive creatures at some distance from
 the farm buildings. Then, again, ina bility to identify the different species often leads man to shoot an inoffen- sive and very useful ally, in revenge for the loss of chicken carried away by a 1 hawk of quite another genus. A knowl- edge of the birds to be found In his own county, or even in his own state, would be quite easy for the average farmer to acquire, and such knowledge would ,nf fto1ST 1,,t ,yaI oarl,. roI, l,,t it would add greatly to the pleasure of living in thee country The only real hen-hawks are the goshawk, Cooper's hawks, the sharp skinned hawks and even these do good service, which prac- tcally offsets their misdeeds. The red tailed hawk, which Is often shot for chicken thief, Is usually guiltless of the crime for which he pays with his life. Fully sixty-six per cent. of his food consists of injurious mammals, and only seven per cent. of poultry. Dr. A. K. Fisher gives 1t as his opinion that, even of this percentage, "a large pro portion is made up of old, diseased or otherwise disabled fowls, so preventing their nter-breeding with the sound stock, and hindering the spread of fatal epidemics.'
 But the song-birds are quite as useful if not more so, since they destroy myr- iads of insects, insects eggs and larvat, and 1t is largeely due to their activity that the fruits and other crops can be harvested at all. For instance, it has been shown that ninety-nine per cent. of the food of the meadowlark in clover time is grasshoppers, which, as every one knows, are amongst the most de- structive of all small creatures It is estimated that. in a township of thirty six square miles. the meadowlarks save twenty four dollars worth of grass ev- cry month during the grusshopper sea- son. The robin is often shot for taking few cherries or strawberries, or for occasionally pecking at an apple, but he never takes more than a small per centage of the cultivated fruit he saves by destroying wasps, ants and other in- sects, which form about one half his food. Most of the garden fruit he does take might be saved by planting such things as wild cherries, mulberries, hackberry and blttersweet, which he likes fully as well as the cultivated fruits. The bluebird has clean rec ora, edtlng nothing or value to the farmer and destroying grasshoppers, crickets and caterpillars.
 The phoebe, kingbird, brownthrasher, catbird, breasted grosbeeak, house wren, the vireos and many others also deserve special protection as friends of the farmers and gardeners. All these birds feed largly on insects, and, though some of them do little damage here and there, all right minded men l should feel grat eful enough to overlook | shortcomings in workmen who charge nothing for their services, The wood | peckers, also, do invaluable service by | ridding the bark of the trees of borers | and other destructive creatures, and | although sap-sucker many occasion | ally kill an ornamental tree by tap | ping 1t a little too much, such an acci- | dent is as nothing compared with the number of good offices he performs
 Many of the sparrows are no less use full in eating the seeds of obnoxious weeds which would otherwise overrun large sections of the country Profess sor F. E. l.. Beal estimates that the | little tree sparrow in the state of Iowa alone destroys annually 1720,000 pounds of the seeds of injurious weeds. Where 1 ,t.,l~1 1,l.