VOL. LX.
INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE 24, 1905.
NO. 25
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WHY THE  FARMERS SHOULD PROTECT
THE BIRDS.
Even Hawks and Owls are Useful
1st Premium.—Of the many forces at
worl; lo aid the farmer in his labors, none
rcnili-r  more elliciont  aid  than  our  small
of   tho  farmer. Di<l   you  ever  notice
low it fn quents fields of growing corn'/
Sinn* people think they tak..* up the com.
but Ihe person who takes the trouble to
watch them closely will probably find that
more   worms   lire  destroyed   tlian  corn.
Then tliere are the birds th;U build
their nests in ollr orchards—catbirds, robins, brown thrushes, orioles and many
others. The  catbirds   build   each   year
story of the usefulness of these birds to
our   forest   trees. What   man   has   so
neglected to do these birds have beea doing for years. To the casual observer
it seems tbey would surely ruin the trees
by tlieir great tunnels through the trunks
aud   branches. Hut   they   select  a   de
cayed tree and begin drumming until Ihey
know b.v the sound there is a worm within.        Then how the chips lly, until mas-
sparrow. It is also of great service in
the south in frightening the bolioliuks
from the fields of rice. The red-tailed
l.awk is another very useful one. It's
particular food is field mice. It renders valuable service iu reducing the number of rabbits stud squirrels so injurious
to crops iu the west. Swainson's hawk
is also a friend of the western farmer. It
eats a great marry gophers nnd other small
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Working on  the Canadian Pacific Irrigatiou Ditch, at C aigary,  Alberta.        This  Ditch   will   Irrigate 1,500,000 .Veres.
friends, the birds. Obliged to hunt their
own living, they unconsciously help tho
farmer while so doing. Birds belong to
that class, which has so few representatives, in which the useful and beautiful
are combined. From a useful point of
view, we find that farmer's battle against
insect pests would be well nigh hopeless
without the birds. Even the hawks and
owls have a place to till iu keeping the
earth a fit habitation for man*. From
an aesthetic point, there are not many
people but who will admit that this would
be a dull place indeed if the birds were
gone.
The other day I was driving along ono
of our country roads. Ou one side is a
fine meadow, on the other a field of corn.
Noticing some meadow larks flying about,
I pulled up the lines so that I could observe them more closely. They were
Hying from the corn field to the meadow
with worms, and back again for more.
The birds were not near enough for me to
distinguish certainly what variety of
worms they carried, but they looked like,
ami probably were, cut-worms; and every
farmer knows how the cut-worm sometimes damages crops during cool, rainy
springs.
The common blackbird is another friend
iir the orchard close to our house, and to
watch them through the long summer afternoon, carrying worms and bugs to tlieir
hungry nestlings, would surely convert
all} fruit grower into a friend of the birds.
The birds that destroy so many weed
seeds are the little sparrows, song sparrows, chipping sparrows, and all the rest
of their tiny cousins. Go out iu the
Geld or garden some bright day next winter, when the ground is covered with
snow, ami wateh the merry little workers
picking weed seeds. Those little grown
birds with chestnut crowns are tree sparrows, and you may possibly find a chickadee near by to help them out. Now,
farmers, did you ever think that every
weed seed eaten by tliese little birds
means just one weed less to be killed next
summer? "Precious little good those
tiny things do in killing we^ds," some
may say. But by "little drops of water,
little grains of sand," the earth is formed,
so it is by little things great obstacles
are overcome; and this great feathered
army all over the country accomplishes
no small thing 'ow'JTrils keeping the earth
free from weeds.
*** *
But not alone in cultivated fields do we
find Ihe birds at work. In our wood lands
Ihe drumming of ths woodpeckers tells a
ter worm is drawn from his hiding place
to fill the crop of a hungry wood pecker.
The wood-peckers most common iu this locality are the red-head, yellow hammer
or flicker, and sapsuekcr. So we see
that tliese birds, by eating the worms
which bore in the wood and cause it to
decay, are a great protection to our
forest trees. And  to  be  without  trees
would be almost as bad as to be without
birds.
Tliere are some others that are not such
gineral favorites as the ones just named,
but which nevertheless do a lot of goml
that the public doesn't know enough about
to   appreciate. They   are   the   hawks
and  owls. Because  a  few  species    of
hawks visit poultry yards, we think of
the whole family as capable only of evil.
Some of them are very destructive to
young poultry, I'Ut they are equally destructive to some pests of Uie farmer.
One of (he most widely distributed as well
as most useful of our hawks is the marsh
hawk. While this bird occasionally
visits poultry yards, the damage it does
there is far outdone by the good it does
the farmer. It's food consists mainly
of field mice, ground squirrels, gophers, (ia
the west), and other small rodents, l>e-
sides various reptiles, with an occasional
rodents, besides insects, and has a particular fondness for grasshoppers. Of course
all of tliese hawks occasionally carry off
poultry, but the good they do so far
outreacbes the bad that they should be
protected by the farmers.
Of the owls, the barn owl and screech
owl aro of great uso in tli's part of the
country. One barn owl is worth several
cats for killing mice and rats, and in the
west it is a great foe of the gophers. The
little screech owls destroy a great many
mice, besides grasshoppers and other large
insects.
These are only a few of the birds to
which the farmer is indebted. Ami when
we think how* fast some species are disappearing, some plan should be adopted
to protect and attract them. We should
liave laws to protect the useful kinds, and
everyone should employ some means to
draw them closer to our homes. Trees
and shrubs suitable for them to nest in
will be much appreciated. See that no
one shoots at them or molests their nests.
In the winter a piece of suet, or other
meat, fastened to tree or post, will be
visited by wood-peckers, nuthatches,
chickadees, titmice, and many others. You
will be paid for your trouble in the pleas-
Continued on    page nine.