The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-12-08

are most seriously harmful to crops
when single species is super abund
ant in certain locality, and there is
no remedy other than an unsparing
use of powder and shot, else orchards
will be devastated, the labor and
hopes of the farmer be lost, and fam
lilies left financially destitute.
Crows do immense damage in New
England corn fields, and about the
only method of protection is to tar
the corn before it is planted. The
efficiency of this scheme was demon
strated by Prof. Beal, who planted
several acres to corn. Toward the
end of the planting the supply of tar
ran out, and he was compelled to
finish without it. The acres planted
to tarred corn were ignored by the
crows, while the untarred patch
furnished a glorious picnic ground
for the croaking banqueters. Though
crows are ravenous corn eaters, it is
stated that this fault is more than
counteracted by their usefulness in
destroying harmful insects. In one
crows stomach the investigators
found the mandibles of ninety grass
hoppers, showing that these birds
are partial to such food. Robins
steal fruit with a vengeance, and
many an eastern farmer has been
near distraction because of the rava.
ges of these birds. It has been dis
covered, however, that they prefer
wild fruit, and that whenever it is
obtainable they scorn fruit that is
useful to man. In the stomachs of
three hundred robins were found the
seeds of forty-two species of wild
fruits, and only four or five domestic.
Because of this preference, the de-
partment suggests that wild fruits be
planted in close proximity to or
chards, SO that birds may be attracted
and kept out Of mischief. AS many
of these wild growths are ornamen-
tai, the advantages of having them
about would be doubled.
Woodpeckers are both harmful and
useful. The good they do is in ex-
cess of the injury. Flickers thrive
on ants. In a single stomach were
found five thousand of these little
pests. The ants best liked by the
flickers are those that befriend plant
lice, carrying them from one growth
to another, as each becomes defolia-
ted. The red-bellied woodpecker,
common in the north of Pennsylvania,
causes some disturbance in the orange
groves of Florida by pecking holes
in the ripe fruit. The yellow-bellied
woodpeckers, indigenous to the north
ern part of the United States and the
Allegheny Mountains, have an exas-
perating trick of girdling trees, and
pecking holes in the trunks in order
to obtain a sap that exudes from the
bruises. They also eat insects that
become imprisoned in the glutinous
sap.
On expanding leaves and flower
buds plant lice accumulate, and most
of the warblers perform work of
benevolence for the farmer by going
over orchards systematically, and
cleaning the offensive and destructive
insects. They are indefatigable in
sects exterminators, and are of great
value to the world of agriculture.
Meadow larks and cuckoos are help
full, and have no black marks against
their names in the ornithological re-
cords. The worst insect enemies of
the fruit grower are caterpillars, can
kerworms, fall webworms, tussock
moths, and codling moths. All these
creatures the cookoos dispose of with
gusto and dispatch. Few other birds
will eat the hairy caterpillars, because
the stiff hairs pierce the inner lining
of most birds stomachs, and produce
discomfort. But the cuckoo expert
ences no bad result, though sometimes
his stomach is completely furred with
these hairs. As the food rotates in
the stomach, these hairs are brushed
round and round like the silk nap OF
a silk hat. In the stomach of one
cuckoo the remains of two hundred
and fifty tent caterpillars were found.
Bushtits and other small birds are
found invaluable for ridding orchards
of scales and minute insects that de-
stroy the value of crops. The micro
scopic eyes of these birds detect the
tiniest insect eggs and every species
of life, and they perform tasks in in
sect determination that would be i'm
possible for man. 1t is said they can
be attracted to orchards by hanging
meat on trees.
Hawks and owls are useful to or
chardists, for they prey on gophers,
groupd squirrels, field mice, rabbits,
and many other rodents that do great
mischief in girdling trees and steal
ing seeds. True, these birds some
times feed on small birds and poul-
try. but their chief food consists of
harmful rodents. This was proved
by examining two hundred and sew
enty stomachs. Out of the seventy
three species of these birds to be
found in the Uuited States, only six
were found to be really harmful.
Some States have offered bounties on
hawks and owls, while rabbits are al
lowed to go their mischievous way
unmolested. Rabbits are found to
be of more harm to farmers than they
are of value as food. Owls and
hawks are helpful, and it has been
suggested that the bounty be placed
on the head of the erring rabbit, and
removed from those of the enterpris-
ing birds. s.-.Scicntifc Ame,ican.
FATHER-Come, young man, get