Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-01-24
REGARDING the Game Laws.

Editor Democrat:
There seem to be in Maine few peo-
pie (they call themselves farmers, but It
is difficult to imagine true farmers with
such narrow minds) who spend their
time in hunting up things to worry
about. Just now these solicit0us ones,
ignoring the real evil threatened by the
invasion of the brown-tail moth, are
worrying over the game laws and devot-
ing their energies to an effort to repeal
the existing laws protecting birds, deer
and moose, and also the law placing a
bounty on hedgehOgs.
How many of these chronic trouble
borrowers do you suppose have ever
reckoned the benefit as we'll as the dam
age done by birds? There is in use in
our schools a text book of rudimentary
agriculture compiled by c. w. Burkett,
professor of agriculture, F. L. Stevens,
professor of biology, and D. Fl. Hill,
professor of English, all of the North
Carolina College of Agriculture. 1t is
to be supposed that these gentlemen are
interested in agriculture and its advance
ment, and not in the protection of game
as game; but after discussing different
soils, crops, fertilizers, fruits, etc., they
90 on to say of birds: "Think Of what
the birds are doing on every farm, in
every garden, and about every home In
the land. Do you think that the whole
service of the birds is to be beautiful,
to sing beautifully, and to rear their
little ones? BY no means is this their
chief service to man. Aside from these
has nrH ic RI
insects. Not all birds feed wholly upon
insects and animals; but even those that
eat but small amount of insect food
may still destroy insects that would have
damaged fruit and crops much more than
the birds themselves do. Birds that
come early, like the bluebird and robin,
are of special service in destroying in
sects before the insects lay their eggs for
the season. The robins on the lawn
search out the caterpillars and cut
worms. The blackbirds, meadow larks,
crows and quail are the great protectors
of the field crops.
"A count of all the different kinds of
animals shows that insects make up
nine tenths of the animals. Hence it is
easy to see that if something did not
check their increase they would soon al
most take the earth. 1t has been esti
mated that bird will devour thirty in
sects daily. Even in widely extended
forest region a very few birds to the
acre, if they kept up this rate, would de-
stroy daily many bushels Of insects that
would play havoc with neighboring Or
chards and fields"
Now, brother farmers, these narrow
minded kickers object to the protection
of partridges because these birds some
times eat few apple-buds; to the pro-
lection of robins and other song birds
because they steal few cherries; but
the Southern gentlemen quoted above
tell us that without these birds our fruits
would suffer even more. Farmers, make
your choice. Shall we keep our feather
ed friends, or shall we allow the protect
ing law to be repealed and leave them to
the little mercy of the gun? Shall we
sacrifice little fruit and keep our birds,
Or shall we let the birds be sacrificed
and allow the insects to create the havoc
on our ia rms that they created in Pha-
raoh's Egypt?
Again, these worrying ones demand
lue TIRuL W SuOOl iuOOSC anu uoCA Of oh
seasons, arguing that these animals
damage crops, and in the
same breath they ask that the bounty
on hedgehogs be repealed, basing their
plea on the fear that the hedgehog will
be exterminated. They let the compare
lively slight damage done>by deer dam
age which if they can prove it was done
by deer, the state stands ready to make
good) outweigh not only their senti-
mental feelings for the deer, but also the
food value and the commercial value of
these animals, and on the other hand
they let their sentiment for useless
quill pig outweigh the great damage he
does to Names splendid forests, dam
age for which there is no compensation.
Is this consistent? Is this an example of
our Wanted Yankee good judgment and
common sense?
Yours in the interest of the farmers,
BRUCE STEWART, Oxford County.