The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-02-26
FARMERS FEATHERED FRIENDS.

From the Home and Farm.
racant number of the Technics
weld contains an illustrated articI
nv Edward b. Clark on the SERVE
The birds render farmers. Home an
Farm has been publishing month";
articIes bv B. w. Jones on the sam
snbieet. and we supplement these a
ticles by some extracts from III
Technical World.
According to the recent state
,,,ent Of William butcher, presl-
Ant of the National Assocla-
ION Of Audubon Societies,
sS00 600 in crops is destroyed
S,nYallv by insects, and TINS
3ns+rnrfion is entirely due TO
~ ranid decrease of nsec-
tivorons birds in this country
rho nublic is just beginning 10
raaIi1a the tremendous econom-
10 value oe many of the com
monest birds. Mr.. clark 10 al
authority on ornithology' anu
presents the whole matter III "
clear and entertaining way.
The American farmer is just be
shining to scrape an acquaintance
with his best friends, the birds. lie
has had them with him in field ana
garden through the years and they
have tofled for him during the hours
Of longer working days than even
4be over-worked husbandman has
niled for himself. The chances are
that the first bird that Adam lald
ewes on was pecking away at a cheF.
nv. for. seemingly. from the DAY OF
Adam man has held the bird 10 De
a thief That we have the feathered
ones still with us despite the tact
that the human hand has been
AGAINST them ever since Eden time
is dine more to the sagacity OF the
birds than it is to the kindness OF
man
It would seem, perhaps, that the
farmer. living in the very heart OF
nature. should know natures ways,
hut for some reason the farmer I'M
til recently never seemed to be anne
to see things in the right light. EN-
perience has taught him little. II
hawk carried off a chicken the haWk
was nothing but chlcken-thlef.
The fact that the bird has earned
some pay for his iabors in protecting
the growing grain and the corn III
the crib from the sTats and other ro-
dents either was lost to sight en-
firely or was allowed to weigh moth
ing in the balance against the occa-
5ional chicken Tavaged from the
poultry yard.
Happily, today things are differ
emit. The birds get their cherries
from the trees on most farms with
out running the danger of being
shot. The chickens are protected
rom the hawks by means of wire
netting, and in case one happens to
all a victim to the appetite and
.alons of a ''red-tail or "broa2-
wing the fact is not made the eX-
3use for the shooting of every hawk
that has the boldness to cast its
shadow on the farm.
Not long ago some of the wise
ones of the Illinois legislature,
prompted to the attempt by the pot
hunting "sportsmen" living in the
big cities, tried to pass law putting
meadow larks on the game-bird list.
Protests went to Springfield to the
of the mail bags, and nun
dreds of these protests were sent by
the farmers of the state who had
learned finally that the meadow lark
which sits on the fencepost in the
early spring to whistle the green
things forth was one of the best
guardians of the growing crops. The
meadow lark was not put on the
game-bird list, and something akin
to legalized murder was averted,
The Woodpecker.
The woodpecker (colaptes au-
ratus) ordinarily called the flicker,
though it has thirty-siX other local
names, was tor a long time on the
farmers prescribed list. 1t was hard
for the husbandman to understand
how any bird that pecked holes in
trees could be other than injurious.
For years it did not occur to many
farmers that the woodpeckers were
seeking in the bark of the trees the
insects which were destroying the
trees life When the bird drills a
big hole in which to lay its eggs 1t
almost invariable picks out dead
branch on a living tree.