Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1908-12-30

How Birds Preserve the Trees.
Now and again some enterprising
newspaper man expatiating on the
work of the Audubon Societies dishes
UP remarkable symposium regard
ASSOCIATION or makes extraordinary
claims in respect to the usefulness
of birds. Then some doubling
Thomas" very properly discounts the
tale and even expresses doubt as to
whether the birds are, after all. so
necessary to mans welfare as the
protectionists would have us believe.
But the practical beneficial results
of the work of the birds have now been
SO long observed and SO conclusiyely
proven that there is no longer any
room for doubt regarding their useful
ness. Destruction of trees and crops
always follows extreme depletion of
the numbers of the smaller native
birds. Moreover conservation of
birds produces the opposite effect.
In ,1S94-5 l made experiments to
attract birds into an old orchard IN
Nedford Mass. Food and nesting
boxes brought the birds to the orchard
in considerable numbers. The sue
ceeding summer apple tree insects such
as the cankerworms and the tent
caterpiIIars were very abundant and
stripped the foliage from most of the
apple trees in the town; but mine
remained in good foliage and bore
almost the only full crop Of fruit in
town that year. Details of this
experiment are given in a bulletin
entitled Birds as Protectors of
Orchards, which is published and
distributed free by the Massachusetts
State Board of Agriculture. Similar
experiments year after year have
demonstrated clearly the dollars-and
cents value of the birds in orchard
and woodland. But while my observa-
tons were under way the German
Baron Hans Won Berlepsch was carry
ing out. unknown to me. number of
more extensive and painstaking expert
rnents in birds conservation on his
great estate at Seebach. He secured
results there far more striking than
My modest efforts produced here. He
studied the methods OF attracting and
feeding birds and those of constructing
Nesting boxes and preparing bird
shelters. He carries out the game
preserve principle with birds until he
had breeding on his home park of IL
acres about 1000 small birds, two pairs
of wild ducks, one pair of Moor hens
and one of grebes Three hundred
nesting boxes hung up in his grounds
are all inhabited by birds. In his 400
acres of woodland there are 1000 nest
ing boxes and everywhere shrubbery is
so trimmed as to make dense and safe
nesting places for the birds while the
enemies of birds are destroyed by the
Keeper of the estate.
The results of the work are that
the estates of the Baron Won Berlepscf
are free from insect injury when
others suffer In 1905 the woods in
the country round about were stripped
by caterpillarS Of Tortrix virdana. The
wood of Won Beriepsch was untouched
and stood out among the surrounding
woods like green oasis. At a distance
Of little more quarter of mile
from it the first traces of the plague
were apparent and quarter of mile
further on it appeared in full force.
This is about the distance that small
birds carry food to their young. The
Prussian government forestefs have
DOW adopted similar measures with
ike results. And the National Associa'
ton of Audubon societies is now intro.
Gsucing into this country for expert.
ment purposes some very successful,
scientifically constructed nestin ne
boxes and feeding appliances now ir
use by Baron Won Berlespch with the
expectation of producing similar results
here.
EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH,
New England Agent, National AS
ISOLATION of Audubon Societies.