The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-25

100000 to save it's farmers a loss of
81 ,A75- But this estimate by no means
represents the actual loss to the farmer
and the Taxpayer of the State. It is
within bounds to say that in the course
of a year every hawk and owl destroys
at least a thousand mice or their equi-
Valent in insects, and that each mouse or
it's equivalent so destroyed would cause
the farmer a loss of two cents per an
mum. Therefore, emitting all reference
to the enormous increase in the number
of these noXious animals when Natures
means of holding them in check has been
removed, the lowest possible estimate
of the value to the farmer of each hawk
owl and weasel would be $40 a year or
$50 in q year and a half
Hence in addition to the $40, 600 actually
ly expended by the State in destroying
1851 Of its benefactors, it has incurred
a loss to it's agricultural interests of at
least $685.. .130 or a total loss of $3941 :
$50 in a year and a half, which is at the
rate of 2,631 420 per annum In other
words the State has thrown away 81 105
for every dollar saved, And even this
does not represent fairly the total loss,
for the slaughter of such a vast mum
Der Of predaceOus birds and mammals is
almost certain to be followed by d cor
responding enormous increase in the
numbers of mice and insects formerly
held in check by them, and it will take
many years to restore the balance thus
blindly destroyed through ignorance of
the economic relations OF our common
birds and mammals
At the end of eighteen months this
law was repealed and a State ornithol-
ogist was appointed to study the rela-
tionship Of birds to the agricultural in
terests of the State.
We, as a people, have failed to OBJ
serve carefully the feeding habits Of our
feathered neighbors, and thus have not
learned their intrinsic value. For the
same reason, We have not been suffi-
cientoly interested in their preserN ton
to enact adequate laws for the protec-
tion of non-game birds. There have been
recorded in North Carolina 312 species
of birds. Only eight species are pro-
tected by the law of the State except in
the case of two counties. Public senti-
ment is so lax in many sections that these
laws are really little better than no laws
at all
There is scarcely a bird within the
limits of our State that is not regarded
as a legitimate mark for any gun. Num-
bers of men and boys in almost every
section of the country at times shoot
non game birds indScriminately Thou
sands of chimney sWifts. swallows. mar
tins and niGhthawks Ibullbats) are shot
every summer Just to see them fall
The small boy plumbers the nests Of
their eggs for his collection" and Goes
SO unrestrained by parental authority.
New York millinery dealers have en-
ployed hunters to traverse our coast line
and kill the sea birds in their breeding
places until our coast is all but desti-
tute of the thousands of beautiful flying
forms which once added to it so much
grace and beauty. Even now when the
sea birds which seem to nest along our
beaches have been so reduced in num-
bers that it would seem scarcely profit
able to hunt them. the millinery dealers
still send their gunners to our shores.
The citizens in many other States
have become alive to the situation and
there is no place on the Atlantic coast
of the United States north of Carolina
where the millinery hunter can murder
sea birds with impunity. Not alone has
Massachusetts, New York, Maryland
Virginia and other Northern States
possed laws providing for the protection
of the sea birds, but bird lovers are see
ing that the strong arm OF the law is
upheld by appointing wardens to guard
these sandy beaches on which the sea
fowls arc wont to congregate to breed.
Thus prevented from carrying on their
work elsewhere, the employees of the mil
liners turn with eager joy to our coast
knowing that here no warden awaits to
keep them from landing our beach,
knowing that here no law froWns upon
their bloody work and knowing that the
public sentiment and the public con-
eieDce. which is ever stronge rthan either
of these, yet slumbers on the subject of
its duty to the birds
Plume hunters in spring traverse the
swamps of Eastern North Carolina
seeking out the breeding places of our
beautiful herons. These birds are killed
for their pumage. They are shot down
before the eyes of their helpless young
which are left by hundreds in the nests
to perish of starvation.
Great numbers of young mocking birds
are taken by people who attempt to rear
them in captivity for the ever ready
Northern market. The problem with
which nature is confronted of adjusting
the ha bits of her wild creatures TO meet
the changing environment occasloned by
the advancement of civilization into the
wilderness is a stern one. When, there
fore man adds to her difficulty by caus-
ing the wholesale destruction OF any par
ticular form of wild life, the rapid fall
ing off in numbers of the prosecuted
species necessarily follows The alarm
ing decrease of the numbers of birds In
the United States of recent years mas
been the occasion of much anxiety in the
minds of all thoughtful people
A scientist who undertook the task OF
estimating the extent of this decrease
during the past fifteen vars IN num-
bcr of States. reports in part as follows:
Nebraska has lost ten per cent or her
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