Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1910-08-11
CLEMSON COLLEGE FIELD STAFF
VISITS GOLD HILL ACADEMY


ment station, in charge.
The field staff was composed
of DR.. Enoch Barnett, of Stat
fordshire, England, bacteriolo-
gist, in charge of live stock at
the experiment station, Clemson
college; Prof. j. N. Harper, di-
rector of the station, and Mr..
James Henry Rice, Jr., secretary
of the Audubon Society of South
Carolina. Clemson college has
no man to teach the study of
birds and therefore engaged Mr..
Rice for the itinerary.
The meeting was held in the
grove near the academy and was
presided over by Mr.. S. G. Faris,
who introduced as the first speak
er Prof. j. N. Harper. The
speaker took as his theme soil
improvement-the correct meth
cd of making rich worn out soils
and of keeping them rich by
the constant addition of humus
or decayed vegetable matter. He
showed the effect of the action
of bacteria in enriching soils
after they were dried and the
effect Of proper rotation. Prof.
Harper is thoroughly informed
of the details of his profession,
is a practical farmer, owning and
operating a large farm in Mis-
sissippi and was brought up as a
farmers boy, even working his
way through college by milking
cows. He was given earnest at
tention and his talk was highly
instructive.
When Prof. Harper concluded
Secretary James Henry Rice, Jr.,
was introduced. Mr.. Rice began
by calling on the crowd to come
nearer, as he had come 200 miles
to make this appointment and
had an important message to de-
liver which he did not wish any
man or woman to miss. This re-
quest was needed and the crowd
closed up.
The bird, said Mr.. Rice, diff
fered from all other living things
in being covered with feathers
and in laying eggs and sitting on
the eggs to hatch them. The
leather-wing bat could fly, as
could the flying squirrel, the fly
ing lemur and other animals.
Reptiles, such as cooters, snakes
and similar things, laid eggs, but
they did not sit on the eggs; the
sun Matched them. Birds had
the keenest vision of any created
thing, the most powerful mus
cles, they could move from land
to land, covering continents and
by reason of their rapid motion
could collect in any part of the
country where an insect outbreak
took place and quell it. Birds
were thus especially fitted to be
the police of the air.
The insect, which first emerged
from chaos and would be the
last created thing to survive,
threatened man at every moment
from the cradle to the grave.
Their numbers were so immense
that they outweighed all other
created things; their rate of in
crease was so enormous that
they would cover and devour
every living thing on earth with
in a short space of time unless
checked; they cost the United
States over one billion dollars a
year according to the department
of agriculture, or three times as
much as the Civil war cost.
Insects had four forms, in their
complete metamorphosis. First
was the egg, then the larva or
caterpillar form; next came the
pupid enveloped in case or
pupa, and last the full grown
insect or image.
Small birds ate quantities of
insect eggs, and when the tiny
caterpillars were Matched out
these birds ate them by the
thousand; other birds tore open
the pupae or cases and devoured
the pupids inside, and when the
full grown insect emerged from
the pupa, large birds, such as
the bullbat and the chuck-will's-
widow devoured that.
Then the hawks and owls were
described and their work in
keeping down rats and mice.
Only the hawks and owls that
ate poultry and game should be
killed.
Mr.. Rice pictured the destruc-
ton of the game and fish of the
State and then explained the