The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1912-10-23
FRIEND OF THE FARMER

BOB WHITE IS ONE OF THE MOST
USEFUL OF BIRDS.
They Are Great Destroyers Of Insects
that Ruin Crops as Well as Grass
and Weed Seed.
In his book, "Useful Birds and
Their Protection" Edward H. Far
bush, Ornithologist Of the Massachu-
setts Board of Agriculture, gives US
some valuable lessons on the protec-
ton of birds. It is most interest
! ing and valuable work, finely Illus
trated with portraits Of birds and
the harmful insects, which birds are
| intended by nature to keep in check.
We wish every farmer in South Car
olina had copy.
| It is we'll known that without birds
man and animals could not continue
to exist, for all vegetation would be
devoured by countless hordes Of in
sects. Birds are natures police and
maintain the equilibrium oifscreat1on
by feeding on insects. In proportion
as vegetation fourishes or degener-
ates, man himself fourishes or de-
generates for the farming interests,
the food and clothing producers, are
far more important than all other
interests combined.
In his book Mr.. Farbush says "the
feeding habits of the Bob White are
such that it must be ranked by the
farmer as one of the most useful
birds OF field and garden. 1t is very
nearly harmless, as a. takes little
grain or fruit. Occasionally in the
corn field it pecks at broken-down
ear of corn, and it picks a good deal
of waste grain in the stubble. Of oats
and wheat. 1t sometimes eats few
strawberries, but these are evidently
not a fayorite food, for birds IN cap
tivity have refused them when hun
cry. On the other hand Bob White
during spring and summer, feeds on
many of the most destructive pests OF
garden and field, and in fall and win
ter eats great numbers Of the SEEDS
Of many noxious weeds.
DR.. Judd makes some interesting
calculations regarding the quality OF
insects and weed seeds consumed by
the Bob White in Virginia and North
Carolina. Estimating that there are
four birds to each square mile IN
these States, and that each bird con-
sumes half an ounce of weed daily
from September 1 to April l, he con-
cludes that one thousand, three hum
dred and forty tons are eaten by pat
ridges annually in the two states and
as insects form about one-thlrd OF
the birds food from June 1 to Au-
gust /, he estimates that patrldges
eat three hundred and forty tons OF
insects in these states within those
two months.
1T is somewhat remarkable that
the partridge feeds on most OF the
superlatively destructive crop and
garden pests in North Carolina,
among them the Rocky Mountain To-
Gust, chinch bug, cotton worm, Colo
RADIO potato beetle, bean leaf beetle,
and several species of grasshoppers.
More than one-third Of it's food for
Auust consists Of insects, OF Whlcn
very few are usefui species. Inc
patridge eats many ground oeetles,
hut mainly those species Whlcn leeo
to some extent on vegetation and
which become destructive If allowed
+, increase unduly. It is probably
the most effective enemy of the Col
orado potato beetle. A correspon-
dent wrote me that he had watched
the partridge feeding on potato beetle
and other insects on his farm, oelleV-
ed that each bird raised on his place
was worth five dollars to him as an
ipsect-killer. He declines to allow any
more patridges to be killed on MS
farm.
"Dr. Judd says that Mr.. c. E. Ro-
maine, of Crockett, Tex, whote tnaI
patridges were nesting about MS
fences and even in his garden, ana
had kept his potato patch entlrely
free from the Colorado potato big. /
from seventy-five to over one nun
dred potato beetles have been found !!
in partridge stomacls. Clover-lea1
beetles, corn-hill bugs, wlre-worms
and many other beetles and larvae !
are eaten. Prof. Aughey founc nve
hundred and thirty-nine locusts III
the stomachs of twenty-one olros' or
an average OF twenty-five a piece.
The Bob White not only finds m2py
cut-yorms but picks up the parent
moths. as we'll as ants, flies and spl-
ders.
"The Young are fed almost entirely
IN insect food. Mr.. Nash says they
eat their own weight IN insects daily.
As an insect eater the partridge IS
worth it's weight in gold to the farm
er and gardener. If it could be pro-
tected and increased in numbers, and
if il could be allowed to come conn.,
dently abcrt the farmstead, perhaps ;
it would become most useful olrd
Of the garden.
I'm late spring and early summer
its vegetable food is largely confined
tc such seeds as it can pick up. ana
to green grass. chickweed. sorrel,
clover and other succulent leaves and
some buds. In the perannel problem
Of weed destruction there is no great
er ally Of the farmer than this bird.
It eats the seeds of over sixty spe-
lies of weeds. Seeds form one-nalf
If it's food, and among them the rag
weed seems to be the favorite. AS
many as two hundred to three hun
ired seeds of smartweed, five hun -.
,,ad nf the red sorrel, seven hun ]