Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-11-22

These figures are no joke. They
have been prepared by competent ex-
perts in the Department of Agriculture,
and they stand for hard facts. Today
the question is, Shall we profit by
them?
COST OF CERTAIN INSECTS PER SPECIES.
The codling moth and curculio apple
pests costs us about $3.50, 900 a year
for spraying operations and S12, 900, 600
a year in shrinkage of value in the ap-
pie crop.
The chinch bug wheat pest sometimes
costs US 500, 900, 900 year.
The cotton boil weevil costs the cotton
planters 500, 200, 600 year.
The tree insect pests cost the nation
500, 900, 900 year.
The grasshoppers, cut worms, army
worms, wire woims, leaf hoppers and
other insects cost the nation annually
more millions than can be counted sep
arately; but the total for all insect pests
is 1920, 100, 900. Now, have we not paid
this price about long enough?
The value of the birds destroyed as
game" and for food" is not equal to
one one-thousandth of the value they
would save to the national wealth if
permitted to live.
Regarding the slaughter of our birds
the increase of insect pests, and the
losses they inhict upon us the great
mass of the American people are sound
asleep. The situation is illogical, alb
surd and intolerable. AS reasoning be-
ngs it is our duty to take hold of this
subject like men, stop the abuse, stop
the disgrace and avoid some of the
loss.
The American people do not realize
that scores of species of the birds that
sportsmen and pothunters are regular
ly allowed to shoot for sport are of i'm
mense value to agriculture. How many
men are there out of every thousand
who know that at least thirty species
of shore birds feed upon noxious in
sects and are immensely valuable to
our agricultural industries? The gun
ners who shoot legally are destroying
154 species of birds that legally are
classed as game birds, even in the
North.
How many Americans out of every
thousand know the immense value of
our song birds, swallows, woodpeck
ers. blackbirds, quail, doves and night
hawks in destroying countless millions
of noxious insects?
THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION.
In view of the decrease already ac-
complished in the general volume of
the bird life of America, in view of the
enormous losses annually inflicted upon
the people of this country by the raw
ages of insects, and in view of the
destruction of wild life that now is
furiously proceeding throughout all
America, the Mclean bill, now before
Congress, to provide federal protection
for all migratory birds, becomes the
most important wild life measure that
ever came before the Congress of the
United States in any form. In view OF
the annual losses to the wealth of this
country that will continue so long as
the Mclean bill fails to pass, it is i'm
possible for any one to put forth one
good reason-unless it be on purely
technical grounds against that meas.
ure. By the memorable logic of the sit
uation any man who opposes the en-,
actment of law for the federal pro
lection of migratory birds becomes by
that opposition an enemy to the public
welfare. The bills introduced in Con
gress by Representatives Weeks anc
Anthony have dragged long enough
They provided for the protection OF
migratory game birds only. Now it i.
time to strengthen their proposition
as Senator Mclean has done-by pro
viding also for the protection of all the
migratory insectivorous birds.
Unless the people of America wish
to shut their eyes to their own inter
ests, and pay out millions of dollar:
annually in the form of increased cos
of living, they should arouse from
their lethargy and put up to Congress:
such demand for the passage of the
Mclean bill that it will be enacted into