OCR Text |
Show SAVE MONEY FOR FARMERS Direct Testimony Showing That th, Woodpecker Should Be Protected - by All Agriculturists. We are assured on high authority that if birds were ns numerous todaj as they were 60 years ago It would! mean a saving of many million dollars to American farmers. The slaughtel of migratory birds is surely followed, by the incrense of destructive insects, Among the farmer's bird friends are. the woodpeckers, especially the redi headed members of the species. In proof there Is lted the following Instance : A pair of them nested In a dead Cottonwood tree near an orchard. One day the observer watched them through a pair of glasses. The young birds were about half grown. The parents made 96 trips in one hour, each time with a worm. It is safe to say that they saved 96 apples In that hour a box worth, say $1. IT the birds worked ten houri a day, they were worth $10 to the owner of that orchard, or, In the three' weeks the birds were in the nest ?210. It is plain, then, that no farmer can afford to kill a woodpecker. |