Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-06-01
THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS TO
THE FARMER.

know.
They are the winged wsrdens of your farms
Who from the corDfelds drive the insidious
foe,
aud from your harvssts keep 9 hundred
harms,
Even the blsckest OF them all. the crow.
Renders good service as Jour man-at-arms,
Crushing the setle in his coat of mail,
And crying havoc on the slug and SMALL
As bird lover, you may think am
prejudiced in their favor, perhaps 1
am, however, / will endeavor to be
just by giving you facts gathered from
the observations of eminent ornithol-
ogists and those which are the direct
results Of experiments made at our
state and national experiment sta
tons. Perhaps the most maligned of
OF my stfeathered friends" is the crow.
Olive Thorne Miller tells us of one
mans experience with this misunder-
stood bird. He had one year plague
of cutworms which got into a corn
field and threatened to destroy it.
Some one wise in those matters told
him the only remedy was to go
through the field every morning and
where he saw a stalk of corn cut off,
to dig out the worm and kill it. In
desperation he began on his big corn
field this almost hopeless undertaking.
He worked one day at it, tired him
self completely out and nearly broke
his back as he said The next morn
ing the worms were as plentiful as
ever. He began to think he would
abandon the corn to them when he
noticed some crows walking around
among the young plants. Of
course, he thought they belonged to
the army of destroyers as If the worms
were not enough to destroy the crop.
For a wonder he did not proceed at
once to shoot them, but in an unusual
'tspasm of sense" he resolved to
find out positively what they were
about. To his surprise he discovered
that they were doing just what he had
been attempting at such expense of
muscle and temper, digging out and
killing cutworms. He instantly de-
cided to leave the field and let the
crows work for him, and the birds
cleared the ground completely, doing
no harm whatever to the corn. In
one lesson he learned to value the
crow. He will probably need SINH
lar lesson to teach him the value of
the birds of prey.
While the diet of the adult crow
consists largely of vegetable food, the
nestlings consume large quantities of
cutworms, grasshoppers and May
beetles. In fact, the quantity of in
sect pests they consume exceeds in
volume more than two to one the
corn they take.
No birds have been subjected to SC
relentless a war as hawks and owls
Throughout the whole breadth of the
land, individuals, communities, coun,
ties and states have made them the
object of their common attacks, one
Pennsylvania county paying in sim
gle year as much as $4,000 for hawks
scalps. And yet it has been shown
that only six of the seventy three spe
cies and subspecies in the United
States are injurious to man, while
many are beneficial by preventing the
ravages of field mice. 1t would b.
just as rational to take the STANDARD
for the human race from highwaymel
and pirates as to Judge all hawks b.
the deeds of a few. Furthermore
do not believe there is one bird bu
does more good than harm; and o
how many featherless bipeds can thi
be said?
The farmer is too apt to look will
disfavor upon the jolly, rollicking
harbinger of spring, the robin, which
is the most commonly known membe
of the thrush family. This attitude
l believe, is chiefly due to its frequen
visits to the favorite cherry tree o
the strawberry patch 80 CAREFUL.
guarded by the farmers wife. But a
the robin is classed among the insect
ivorous birds, thus protecting tn
fruit, he is entitled to his share of il
The different members of this family
of which there are many, are also val
liable for their destruction of enor
nous numbers of white grubs, arm
worms, cutworms, and grasshoppers
Probably the cuckoos and orioles d
more to protect foliage than any othe
birds and should be vigorously pro
tected by the horticulturfst. The
subsist chiefly on hairy caterpillar
and other larvae which destroy tn
foliage of the orc hards.
Too much cannot be said in favor @
the swallows for they like all othe
little birds, are feathered appetite
| and this means the destruction of in