Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1912-09-06

| Al tue same time PROFESSOR sam
uel Aughey of the University of Ne
braska made q careful study of tn,
bird life in the different Localities
where this outbreak of locust oc
CURED. He discovered that thrushes
kinglets, chickadees, nuthatches
warblers, vireos, swallows, crows
blue jays, blackbirds, kingfishers
woodpeckers, hawks, owls, grouse
ducks, gulls and even humminl
birds were all doing their best t
check the advancing horde of locusts
Some people think that humming
| birds live only on the sweet food
they obtain from flowers, but this Is
not true. -Four small locusts were
| found ia the stomach Of one hum
| ming-bird Forty-seven were taken
from the stomach Of o yellow-headed
blackbird Six robins had eaten 256
lOcusts, Sixty-seyen of the insects
were found in the stomachs of three
blue birds. One little ruby-crowned
kinglet had eaten 20. Many of these
and other birds were feeding their
young on locusts. One barn owl had
eaten 80. Even two white pelicans
had varied their diet of crawfish and
frogs by picking up 1913 of these hop
pers SO it would be difficult to oh
tain more striking evidence showing
the commercial value of wild birds
as the farmers extra hands.
When the Mormons first settled in
Utah, black crickets came in myriads
from the mountains and would have
destroyed the crops had it not been
for the gulls that came by hundreds
and thousands from the surrounding
lakes At that time the settlers at
Salt Lake regarded the advent of the
birds as a heaven-sent miracle, and
ever since the gull has been esteemed
almost as a sacred bird by the Nor
mons About the beet and alfalfa
fields, when they are being irrigated,
the gulls still collect and feed largely
on field mice that are so destructive
to crops.
Last year complaints were sent in
to the department of agriculture at
Washington stating that field mice
were causing great destruction in the
alfalfa fields in the Hum boldt val
ley in Nevada. Men from the bio
logical survey were sent to investi-
gate In places the crops were en-
tirely ruined. The mice ate the stalks
and leaves and then devoured the
roots. A careful estimate showed
that on some of the ranches from
10000 to 10000 mice were getting
their living out of an acre of alfalfa.
With this multitude to feed, the
farmers had little or nothing left for
| themselves. The abnormal increase
OF mice was purely an overbalance
in nature. The farmers had no ex-
ira hands to keep the mice in check.
The wild birds and animals that feed
on mice had not been protected or
they would have held the mice in
check. But as soon as the mice in
creased to such enormo Gus numbers.
birds began to collect and feed on
them. By aiding these natural enc
mics Of the mice and by using
poisons, the number of mice was re-
duced. Hereafter these extra hands
OF the farmer will receive more care
full protection. If any department in
the government has paid for itself in
actual results and benefits to the
farming class, it is the biological sur
vey of the department of agriculture.
Working in close conjunction with
the biological survey, the National
Association of Audubon Societies is
doing more than any other organiza-
ton in the United States to save and
protect our wild birds, that they may
act as extra hands about every farm
In our country to prevent such out
breaks of injurious insects and ro-
dents.
According to DR.. G.. L. Marlatt of
the bureau of entomology of the de-
eartment of agriculture, millions of
dollars are expended annually all
through the country in the fight
against insect pests This is but a
small part of the real loss. After a
careful study of the inroads which
| the Hessian fly makes upon the
wheat crops, DR.. Marlatt says it is
seldom this insect causes a loss of
less than 10 per cent of the crop. In
1904 this amounted to over $50
600, 900, while in 1900 the loss in
the wheat-growing states from this
tiny insect approaches S100,00O,00O.
Year after year the losses caused by
the attacks of chinch bugs in the
Mississippi valley states have
amounted to millions of dollars. For