. The Indiana weed book. Weeds. 26 THE INDIANA WEED them entirely filled, with weed seeds. He estimated that each bird consumed at least a quarter of an ounce of such seed daily. Mak- ing a fair allowance for the number of tree sparrows to the square mile, he calculated that in the State of Iowa the tree sparrow alone destroys each winter about 1,750,000 pounds or 875 tons of weed Seeds. In the stomach of a single one of these birds was found at one time 700 seeds of foxtail. All the sparrows deserve the especial pro- tection of the farmer as they feed not only upon weed seeds in autumn
. The Indiana weed book. Weeds. 26 THE INDIANA WEED them entirely filled, with weed seeds. He estimated that each bird consumed at least a quarter of an ounce of such seed daily. Mak- ing a fair allowance for the number of tree sparrows to the square mile, he calculated that in the State of Iowa the tree sparrow alone destroys each winter about 1,750,000 pounds or 875 tons of weed Seeds. In the stomach of a single one of these birds was found at one time 700 seeds of foxtail. All the sparrows deserve the especial pro- tection of the farmer as they feed not only upon weed seeds in autumn, winter and early spring, but destroy many forms of noxious in- sects in summer. Among the most numerous and beneficial of the sparrows in Indiana be- sides the two mentioned are the goldfinch or thistle bird, the field, fox and song sparrows, the chewink and cardinal or redbird, the white crowned, white throated and chipping sparrows, the dickcis&el, grasshopper sparrow and lark finch and the bay-winged and indigo buntings. In addition to the sparrows the chief seed eating birds occur- ring in the State are the mourning dove, quail, blackbirds, bobo- link, cowbird and horned and meadow larks. Some of these feed largely upon grain as well as weed seeds, but the good that they do far outweighs the bad. No less than 50 different kinds of birds act as seed destroyers. During eold weather they require an abundance of food to keep their bodies warm, and it is the habit of the sparrows that then flock to the weed patches to keep their stomachs and gullets heaping full. In time of deep snows, when the weeds are covered, many of them starve and then especially can the farmer reward and protect them by scattering wheat and other grain where they can easily find it. 13. Maintain the cleanliness.—After a farm has once been comparatively cleared of weeds it should be kept in that condition. With the proper care this can be clone with little labor and small cost. Meadows and grain fi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectweeds, bookyear1912
