Putnam Patriot

The purple martin, both during its northern and southern sojourns, is one of the most valuable birds from the standpoint of the service which it renders the farmer and gardener. During the winter in its southern home it wages war on a great variety of injurious insects, including the big cotton boll weevil beetle, which works such havoc on the cotton plantations. On its arrival in the northern states in the latter part of April or early May the martin continues its beneficent work of insect destruction. It is an inoffensive bird, of most interesting habits and on every account should be provided with nesting places and protected in every possible way.