. American farming and stock raising, with useful facts for the household, devoted to farming in all its departments. Agriculture. 1780 THE AJIEKICAN FARMER. that a pair of sparrows will destroy 3,360 caterpillars in a week. We saw the parent laird visit a young purple martin on a chiu-ch spire opposite our windows five times in as manj*minutes, and each time with an insect. A brood of partridges will nearly exterminate the denizens of an ant-hill in a couple of days. Woodpeckers are constantly employed in ridding the orchards of insects and their eggs, which they skillfully discover under the
. American farming and stock raising, with useful facts for the household, devoted to farming in all its departments. Agriculture. 1780 THE AJIEKICAN FARMER. that a pair of sparrows will destroy 3,360 caterpillars in a week. We saw the parent laird visit a young purple martin on a chiu-ch spire opposite our windows five times in as manj*minutes, and each time with an insect. A brood of partridges will nearly exterminate the denizens of an ant-hill in a couple of days. Woodpeckers are constantly employed in ridding the orchards of insects and their eggs, which they skillfully discover under the pieces of dead barko Bobbins, through the spring and summer, are continually hunting for worms and grubs, which they find concealed under the surface of the ground. We recently noticed a common chipping sparrow capture a moth, and, upon depriving her of it, we found it to be that of a common apple-tree caterpillar (ONsiocampa Americana), so de- structive to the orchards of New England. To check the excessive increase of insects is evidently the great task which birds are intended to perform. Did they have no other ofBce save to cheer and encourage hu- manity with their beautiful plumage and song, and to typify a purer and more etherial existence to us crea- tui'es who 'grovel here below,' even then they would deserve the favor of every Christian and every poet; but when the useful is combined with the beautiful, and a practical value is added to an elevating symbol, Baltimore Oriole (Icteric Saiiimon). t^ey Command the interest of every One, and their pro- tection becomes a matter of consequence to ; Mr. C. G. Maynard, of Ipswich, Mass., who in his investigations has opened the stomachs of more than three thousand birds in order to ascertain the nature of their food, mentions the following number of birds which devour the canker-worm and the larvse of other injurious insects: Red-eyed vireo, song sparrow, chickadee, scarlet tanager, robin, black-billed cuckoo, wood pe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
