The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1910-06-17

the agents which has helped to kill
some of the beautiful Norfolk lawns
this spring by destroying song birds,
was dealt a hard blow by Norfolk
citizen who is well vcrsed in birds
l.. Sessions, who has been a friend
OF the sparrow, has lost his loyalty.
When 1t was reported that the spar
row was destroying the song birds
and that the death of the blue grass
could he traced, perhaps to the lit
tie arabs. MIR. Sessions upheld the
many good traits of the sparrow.
Although ne was not sure whether
the sparrow killed the grub worms
which, 1t Is believed Is doing away
with lawns, he denied emphatiCally
that the sparrow killed the song birds
and in detail told of the great benefit
the sparrow is to the country. He
cited one instance where the govern
ment figures showed that a saving of
$50 100000 was made the farmers of
the United States by the sparrow
which destroyed the weed seed.
Another instance where the spar.
row really did help the husbandman
is cited by Mr. Sessions:
One Nebraska farmer who at one
| time was an enemy of the sparrow
today is the sparrows' friend, Some
| time ago this farmer, who has large
rose plantation from which place the
| roses are sent to the market and sold
| for much money. discovered that his
plants were being destroyed by rose
slugs. L., employed hundreds of men
women md children who went from
bush to bush with tin pals gathering
these slugs, bat nothing seemed t
exterminate the pest He had almOs
given up hope of saving his roses
when suddenly he noticed hundreds
of sparrows flocking around his rost
plantation.
| Curious to know what the sparrow
were eating, he killed one and upol
Ian examination of the little stree
arabs stomach he found it to be fillet
with the rose slugs. A few days late
the slugs had disappeared and late
on the sparrows had disappeared, haN
ing done the work that hundreds o
human beings could not do, thus say
ing the farmer much money.
But Mr.. Sessions now, after tellin
of the work of the sparrow, went t
his residence where the garden is tn
playground of nearly every kind G
bird that inhabits Norfolk. Here
large water tank is built for the birds
T One valuable song bird had built
nest in one of the trees and eggs wer
ready to hatch. Mr.. Sessions wa
looking over the variety of birds an
noticed a number of sparrows fly t
the nest where they destroyed tn
r eggs. His kindness for the sparro'
, ceased and he says now that his form
. er statements of their value had II
foundation as far as not destrOyin
song birds is concerned.
The sparrow can be seen in prol
= ably every country in the world. r
the globe trotter they are an old a,
quaintance. He who has travelle
around the world, can appreciate BIT
|
and that sight is the busy little stree
, arab. A Norfolk traveller who a fe
, years ago finished an around-the-worl
tour says although he was man
, times lonesome when arriving in
strange port he was often made hal
, py by watching the sparrows in tn
streets.
, In Honolulu, Yokohoma, Kobe Ma!
! asaki, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila
Singapore, Penang, Colombo throug
the Suez, Naples, Rome and all owe
Europe the Norfolk man was met b
the thousands of sparrows whose az
tons and looks were the same as h
left them in the United States.
Some say the English sparrow wi
destroy the American song bird, altt
gether. 'If we estimate the Englis
sparrow at 5,OOO,OOO,O00 at the pre-
ent time" says John Davey of Ken
TO-, you can safely multiply by fiv
annually, and at this rate in ten year
it is certain that many of our mos
valuable species of birds will be e,
tinct, never more to be seen"