The News Scimitar

THE NEWS SCIMITAR

OUR PART IN FEEDING THE NATION

(Special Information Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture.)

BY ETHEL LLOYD PATTERSON

MANY COMMON BIRDS USEFUL TO FARMERS

To have The-Eyes-That-See is the gift of the Gods when there is Beauty to look upon: but to have The-Eyes-That-See when Horror is abroad is the curse with which one pays the Gods for their bounty.

Whether a bird is beneficial or injurious to growing crops depends almost entirely upon what it eats. If it consumes harmful insects the bird is an ally of the farmer. If it feeds largely on growing crops it may be an enemy. Not all birds are beneficial, but the useful kinds far outnumber the injurious, and so great is their value as insect destroyers in the United States that to them the United States department of agriculture gives credit of being one of the greatest controlling factors in limiting the development of insect pests and in preventing many disastrous outbreaks.

In the case of species which are abundant or which feed to some extent on crops, the question of their average diet becomes one of supreme importance and only by stomach examinations can it be satisfactorily solved if field observations have proved to be inconclusive. Birds are often accused of eating this or that product of cultivation, when an examination of the stomachs shows the accusation to be false.

Aid Offered Farmers.

The biological survey of the United States department of agriculture has conducted in the past few years a systematic investigation of the food of the species most common about farms and gardens and offers to supply information to any farmer in doubt as to whether his birds are an asset or a liability.

Within certain limits birds eat the kind of food that is most accessible, especially when their natural food is scarce or wanting. Thus they sometimes injure the crops of the farmer who has unintentionally destroyed their natural food in his improvement of swamp or pasture. Much of the damage done by birds and complained of by farmers and fruit growers arises from this very cause. The berry-bearing shrubs and seed-bearing weeds have been cleared away, and the birds have no recourse but to attack the cultivated grain or fruit which has replaced their natural food supply.

Destroy Many Insects.

The great majority of land birds subsist upon insects during the period of nesting and molting, and also feed their young upon them during the first few weeks. Many species live almost entirely upon insects, taking vegetable food only when other subsistence fails.

It is thus evident that in the course of a year birds destroy an incalculable number of insects and it is difficult to overestimate the value of their services in restraining the great tide of insect life.

In winter, in the northern part of the country, insects become scarce or entirely disappear. Many species of birds, however, remain during the cold season and are able to maintain life by eating vegetable food, as the seeds of weeds. Here again is another useful function of birds in destroying these weed seeds and thereby lessening the growth of the next year.

SOME BIRDS GENERALLY USEFUL.

It is in their relation to insects and other enemies to crops that birds are most directly associated with the welfare of man. It is not possible to give a hard-and-fast rule, applicable to the whole country, as to whether any certain bird is beneficial or injurious to farmers, but in the United States department of agriculture's farmers' bulletin 630, "Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer," more than 50 species of birds common to farming sections are discussed.

The birds treated in the bulletin are: Bluebird, robin, titmouse, wren, brown thrasher, catbird, swallow, towhee, sparrow, house finch, grackle, brewer blackbird, Baltimore oriole, meadow lark, redwing, blackbird, bobolink, crow, bluejay, Pacific coast jay, phoebe, kingbird, nighthawk, woodpecker, cuckoo and bobwhite.