The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-05-23
JUST ABOUT BIRDS
AND THEIR HABITS
What One Hears in the
Smoker of a Pullman
Car.
TRAVELLING MEN AND
TOURISTS SWAP STORIES
In This Instance the Feathered
Tribe Furnished the Topic
for Conversation.

1t was in the smoker of Il Pullman
on the Salt Lake Routc The crowd
was a congenial ono. There were com
mercial men. tourists, ordinary travel
ers and newspaper man. The convcr-
sstion had been npon general topics,
when one Of the party called attention
to Il covey of quail which had risen
from the brush. Beautiful birds. -
he said. The flight of the covev fur
nished a theme and the gentleman, vino
was the travelling representative OF a
Los Angeles fruit combination and VINO
had called attention 10 the quail said:
People who live on the desert have
to contend against many things that
those who live elsewhere know moth
ing about. For instance. one of the
greatest pests are the birds, Else
where birds are welcome guests. but
not so on the desert Near Los We
gas, Nev., there are several ranches,
the largest one being the old Stewart
ranch. Flowing wells on these ranches
or water from thc springs which flows
in The narrow but deep stream there
irrigates the soil, which is wonderful
" productive. II is not, therefore. a
scarcity Of water that bothers the
. ranchmen. But when the crops are soNn
the birds come by the thousands
sparrows they are-and they are as vo-.
raclous as cormorants, Where thev
come from no one knows, but they core
and the seed is yanked from the ground
in no time. To do away with this pest
small grain is sown with arsenic or
strychnine, and this kills the birds by
the hundreds. and the heaps of dead
sparrows frlghten others away. Then
the regular crop is sowD. The black
birds. which come after the sparrows,
attack the green stalks. are as vora-
ciou- as The sparrows, but scarce
crow frightens these birds away. Queer
things happen, do they not7"
t'Speaking about BIRDS said Colo
RADIO man. people who grow cherries
for market on large scale have made
study OF the feathered soucsters
with the result that the birds have trees
planted especially for their use and
nothing else bothers these trees Every
tenth tree IN cherry orchard is a
sweet cherry which ripens early This
tree IS put there for the birds, and
they do not touch any other tree in the
orchard. But how they do get away
with those sweet cherries is a caution,
les, YOU can laugh, but it is true. If
this were not done the marketable
fruit would be largely destroyed" "
"The other day I was at Twin
Falls chimed in n Chicago traveller
FOR a hat house. "aud ! drove out TO
the Perrine ranch, IN the canyon of
tho Snake river. Perrine, YOU know, |
has one of the greatest orchards in
Idaho, 100000 trees. Fruit from his
farm goes all over the world. Your
talk about birds recalls what he said !
10 me. We were looking over his great !
orchard when we came to what ap-
Deared to be thicket Of mulberry |
trees This thicket covered half |
acre. 'Ics, this is mulberry tree
thicket. ] planted this for the birds. |
You see, if ii was not for this fruit |
The birds would attack the other trees
and would injure the fruit very mate
rally, but they know these mulberrics !
arc for them alone. so they do not |
bother anything else. No, it s not queer. |
but it is a fact Just then his little |
daughter came up to where we were !
standing. She had handful of bread |
crumbs, and, stepping on a little rustic
bridge that spaDued n tiny stream of |
water, put her hand under the water
md speckled front over foot long