New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-07-29
Only Ton Per Cent Left.

country has already been destroyed
and the other ten per cent will 60 in q
few years unless drastic measures are
employed to stop the slaughter. Farmers
and fruit growers Of this country are
{ losing over $1,000, 100000 a year by
reason Of the ravages Of insects. Here
are few items in this appalling expense
j account:
The cotton growers Of Texas are
losing 40 millions to so millions year by
reason Of the ravages Of the boil weevil
and all because the quail and prairie
chickens, the natural enepies Of that bug
have been practically exterminated in
that state.
The wheat growers Of the United
States are losing over $10O,0OO,O 900 q
year by reason of the ravages Of the
chinch bug, because the quail, the
natural enemy of that bug, has almost
been exterminated.
The farmers of the middle eastern
states are paying out SIS, 000, 900 a veal
for paris green to put on their potato
vines. Why? Because the quail, the
natural enemy Of the potato bug, has
been killed off.
We Pay For The Poison.
Each Of the great apple producing
states are paying $1,000, 900 to 3, 1000, OO(
a year for spraying apple trees to keel
down the coddling moth. Why? Be.
cause the wood-peckers, the sap-suckers
the robins, the blue jays, the blue-birds
the orioles, the tanagers and other birds
that formerly preyed upon that insect
have been killed off, and every man.
woman and child who eats an apple OF
potato helps to pay for this poison.
| Some Important Records.
| A quail taken in a cotton field in Texas
had in it's craw the remains of 1877 boil
weevils. Another taken in potato
field in Pennsylvania had in it's craw the
remains Of 1O1 potato bugs. Another
taken in an Illinois. wheat field had in its
craw the remains of over 1000 chinch
bugs. The Bob-White has been known
to eat 1875 different kinds of insects,
many of them the most injurious we have,
the potato beetle, the cucumber beetle
cut worm, army worm, wire worm,
chinch bug, corn ear worm, the cotton
boil weevil, and many others. Careful
students of this subject estimate that a
quail will eat an average of rs, 900 insects
and 5000, 900, 900 weed seeds in a year
about IL pounds of insects and 100
pounds of weed seeds.
| 5000, 900 Bushels of Insects.
! It is estimated that the birds during
their stay in Illinois each season destroy
more than three million bushels OF
noxious insects. Think of the conse-
quence if the birds were all exterminated!
And yet the slaughter goes on. Parents
send their boys to Sunday school where
they learn the beautiful Bible stories,
but they allow them to come home and
take their air rifles and shoot the robins
that have young birds in their nests.
Prominent naturalists agree that cats
destroy more birds than any other animal
except man. DR.. Fisher says that $780,
900 birds are destroyed in New York
each year by cats.
| A we'll known naturalist estimates that
the birds of Massachusetts, eat q, 900
bushels of insects every day in the
summer; another that 40 carloads of in
sects are eaten every day by the birds OF
Nebraska.
To hold the insects in check we need
to have our gardens, fields, pastures and
roadsides literally alive with these useful
birds.
There are 107 species of bugs that prey
on the elm trees, 264 that attack poplars,
1876 that prey ON the birches, 154 that
work on the beech trees, and over 400
that attack oak trees.
The number of plant lice found on a
single cherry tree was computed by Prof.
Fitch to be 100000. C. L. Marlat
calculates that the Hessian fly damage to
the wheat crop Of 1900 was 500, 200, 900.
The chinch bug as early as 1864 damaged
staple crops $100,000,O0O. House mar
tins, swallows and swifts eat rose beetles,
May beetles, cucumber beetles and house
flies, practically all Of which are caught
on the wing. Naturalist Otto Martin
says 80 parent martins made 3,277 visits
to their young with insects in one day
Fifty-one species of birds are known tc
eat hairy caterpillars, and SO species FEED
on plant lice.
Shall we protect the birds: If we de
we must make closed seasons of severa
years for certain kinds Of game. We
must prohibit unnaturalized foreigners
hunting at any time. We must continue
Federal protection for migratory birds
and finally we must stop absolutely the
L