Checking the Waste

M >> Mary Huston Gregory >> Checking the Waste

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Robins are so well loved for their cheery song, for their friendliness
to man, and their red breasts coming as a touch of color in returning
spring, that except where they are present in great numbers, there is
little complaint of the fruit they eat, even without taking into account
the good work they accomplish as insect eaters. In fact only four per
cent. of a robin's food is cultivated and a little less than half of it
is wild fruit not prized by man. The remaining half consists of
caterpillars, beetles, spiders, snails and earth-worms.

The cat-bird is also known as a cherry-eater and he frequently helps
himself from strawberry and raspberry patches. He eats a larger
proportion of cultivated fruit than the robin, but about twice as much
wild fruit, including the sumac and poison ivy. The cat-bird eats many
injurious insects, which constitute only a little less than half of his
food.

The cedar-bird is sometimes called the cherry bird, and is accused of
being a great cherry-stealer, but an examination of stomachs showed that
only nine birds out of one hundred and fifty-two had eaten any cherries
and that cherries formed only five per cent. of the food of these few.
There is even evidence that this bird prefers wild fruits, which form
its principal food though it eats a few insects.

The crows and blackbirds are accused of many bad habits, such as pulling
up young corn, destroying large quantities of grain and injuring much
fruit by pecking holes in it which are later entered by insects. Crows
eat fruit to some extent, but the greater part of it is wild. Both crows
and blackbirds are accused of robbing the nests of other birds.
Blackbirds are injurious chiefly because they gather in such large
flocks that when they descend on a field they can eat a large amount of
grain in a short space of time. The greatest good accomplished by the
blackbird is in the spring when it follows the plow in search of
grub-worms, of which it is extremely fond. It also does much good in
destroying insects in the early summer, the young birds being fed almost
entirely on insect food until they are grown.

Of the crow, Doctor Merriam, who is at the head of this branch of work
in the Department of Agriculture, says, "Instead of being an enemy of
the farmer, as is generally believed, the crow is one of his best
friends and the protector of his crops. True, during corn-planting time,
the crow's bill is turned against the farmer during one month, and one
month only is he his enemy. But during the other eleven months the crow
is really working overtime for him. It eats thousands upon thousands of
destructive insects and bugs every week, and when it comes to feeding
its young, gives them a diet composed almost entirely of worms and
insects that prey upon the crops."

Another government report says, "The crow should receive much credit for
the insects which it destroys. In the more thickly settled parts of the
country it probably does more good than harm, at least when ordinary
precautions are taken to protect young poultry and newly planted corn
from it." It is probable that in many parts of the country some farmers
will find it desirable to reduce the number of crows and blackbirds on
their farms.

The brown thrasher is a beautiful singer and eats many insects, mostly
injurious. It eats some cultivated fruits. It also eats a small amount
of newly planted corn, but at the same time clears the field of May
beetles. Altogether it is a useful bird but not one of the highest
benefit.

There are a few species of birds of which but little good can be said,
and which it may be desirable to attempt to drive out in many parts of
the United States. Chief of these is the English sparrow. It is of a
quarrelsome disposition and is much given to driving other birds from
their nests. In some districts it has completely expelled some of the
most useful kinds of birds. It exists everywhere in such numbers as to
render it a nuisance, and it may be said to be the greatest pest among
American birds. Its favorite food is dandelion seeds, and it destroys
many thousands of seeds, but as the dandelion does no real injury this
habit does not offset all the harm done. It also eats other weed seeds
but the greatest thing to be said in its favor is that it feeds on the
cottony maple scale. It is probable that in small numbers the English
sparrow might be classed among the useful, or, at least, one of the only
partly harmful birds, but there is no bird whose numbers it is more
desirable to reduce.

The common blue-jay is accused of some very bad habits, among them
eating the eggs and young of small birds. It is a fruit eater and also
a grain eater and frequently robs corn-cribs and injures newly planted
fields. However, it eats some insects, mice and other small enemies of
the farmer and as it is nowhere very plentiful, and does not live in
flocks, there is not much cause for complaint. However, its cousin, the
California jay, has an extremely bad record. It is a great fruit eater,
and devastates prune, apricot, and cherry orchards. It is a serious
robber of the nests of small birds and hens, and though it eats some
grasshoppers and a very few weed seeds, it is thoroughly disliked by
western fruit growers. It should be greatly reduced in numbers. Another
California bird that has gained a bad reputation is the house finch or
linnet. It does serious harm in the cherry and apricot orchards, not so
much by eating as by pecking at the fruit. It probably pecks, and thus
destroys, five times as much fruit as it eats. As the bird is very
abundant, it sometimes causes the loss of almost the entire crop of a
small fruit grower. It does not deserve protection, for it eats the buds
and blossoms of fruit trees and does little to compensate for all the
harm done. Its best habit is eating woolly plant-lice.

No article on birds would be complete that does not dwell on the
enormous destruction of birds for trimming hats. As one writer puts it,
we pay eight hundred million dollars a year for hat trimmings, assuming
the insect ravages to be due to the killing of our birds for millinery
purposes. While this is exaggerated, it is undoubtedly true that this is
the largest cause of the destruction of the birds of America.

The Audubon society says that we, as a nation, use 150,000,000 birds a
year for trimming hats alone and that this single item would save our
crops from insect destruction and largely rid our fields of weeds.

If a few hundred dollars are stolen from a bank, the greatest efforts
are made to catch the thief, and if possible to get the money back; but
the great army of insects destroy each year, almost as much in money
value as all the national banks in the country have on deposit, and this
wholesale destruction might largely be prevented if every woman and girl
took (and kept) a pledge not to use wings, breasts, or birds on her
hats. There is no objection to the use of ostrich feathers, which are
carefully plucked from the live birds. The feathers grow again, just as
the wool grows on sheep that have been sheared. Neither is there any
objection to using the feathers of the barn-yard fowls which are killed
for food.

Only a little less is the loss caused by so-called "sportsmen," men who
kill only for the pleasure of shooting, or who, because they like the
taste of quail, shoot as many as they can in a day instead of only
enough to satisfy hunger. Often a farmer sells for a very small amount
the privilege of hunting on his farm, thinking he is making money when
in fact he is losing ten dollars for every one he makes.

The quail, sparrows and other birds on the farm are destroyed. As a
result the weed seeds are not eaten and a big crop comes up in the
spring. In the summer there are no quail on the farm to destroy insects.
The insects and the weeds together make the crop poorer, and the owner
feels that farming is growing less profitable, when in fact he has
failed to take ordinary precautions to obtain a good crop by protecting
the birds.

With the huntsman and his bag of birds we may class the small boy with
his rifle or sling-shot. A single boy does little harm but all the boys
in the country taken together do a grave amount of damage.

Last in the list comes the egg hunters, who by robbing nests can kill
four or five birds at a time, simply for mischief. A party of boys can,
by a day's sport, make a serious difference in the number of birds in a
region where they are not plentiful and thus have a large share in
damaging the crops.

If, then, birds play so large a part in the welfare of the farm and in
turn in the prices of farm crops, fruit, lumber and cotton cloth, it is
most desirable that every effort be made to reduce the numbers of
harmful birds and to encourage the useful species.

Many of the states now have excellent laws for the protection of birds;
but without a large number of game wardens, it is difficult to enforce
the laws closely unless the public sentiment is strongly against the
killing of birds. Laws should be made to protect birds against the egg
hunter, (except for the purpose of study, and then a license should be
required), sling-shots should be prohibited, as they already are in many
places. All hunters should be required to have a license, the number of
birds killed by a single person in a single day should be limited, and
certain birds should always be protected by law. These laws should be as
nearly uniform as possible in all the states and there must be a desire
on the part of all the people to see these laws obeyed.

The boys and girls should be banded together in the schools or in
societies and pledged to protect birds and not to destroy them. The
girls should pledge themselves not to wear birds for ornament.

Women's clubs might do much to popularize the movement for the
protection of birds, and to that end should try to establish a sentiment
among their members against their use for millinery.

All these agencies working together will make a vast difference in the
number of birds, and as a result, in the good that they do, but the
great work must be done by farmers themselves. They will need to protect
themselves in certain ways against the harm done by many of the birds
that on the whole are extremely useful.

To protect poultry from owls do not allow it to roost in the trees; to
protect from hawks, keep the young ones near the house, and if possible
cover their runways with wire netting.

To protect against grain eating, use scarecrows or put up a dead crow as
a warning. Mixing seed corn with tar so as to coat it will prevent crows
from pulling it up at planting time.

To protect against fruit eating, plant wild fruits. The best of all
trees for this purpose is the Russian mulberry, which ripens at the same
time that cherries do and is particularly relished by all fruit-eating
birds. If planted in barn-lots, chickens and hogs will eat all the fruit
that falls to the ground, making it serve a double purpose. The fruit of
wild cherry, elder, dogwood, haws, and mountain-ash are eaten by birds,
and if a farm be planted with such trees and bushes in the barn-yard,
along the lanes or in some of those unproductive spots that are to be
found on every farm, birds will be attracted to the farm and will pay
well for themselves, and the farmer's crop of cultivated fruit will be
protected. Birds themselves distribute many seeds, particularly of wild
fruits.

The farmer who keeps several cats must pay for it in the loss of birds,
for birds will not nest where they are constantly watched by cats. Boxes
for martins and other birds, bits of hay, horse-hair and string
scattered about will often encourage birds to build about an orchard or
farm. A wood-lot, besides paying in other ways, will afford nesting
places for a large number of birds. To place a drinking and bathing
place near the house is one of the best methods of attracting birds,
which will use it constantly.

By all these methods and a little winter feeding with crumbs, apple
peelings or waste fruit and grain, the farmer will be able to induce a
good variety of birds to nest on his farm, and will receive in return
great protection from the small mammals, insects and weeds that would
lessen the amount of his harvests.

REFERENCES

Relation Between Birds and Insects. Yearbook 486.

Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institution.

Annual Reports of the National Audubon Society.

Bird Day. How to Prepare For It. C. C. Babcock.

Bird Neighbors. John Burroughs.

Bird enemies. John Burroughs.

How to Attract the Birds. N. B. Doubleday.

The Food of Nestling Birds. Yearbook 1900.

Does It Pay the Farmer to Protect Birds? Yearbook 1907.

Birds as Weed Destroyers. Yearbook 1898.

How Birds Affect the Orchard. Yearbook 1900.

Value of Swallows as Insect Destroyers. Yearbook Reprint.

Birds That Eat Scale Insects. Yearbook Reprint.

Birds Useful for the Destruction of the Cotton Boll-Weevil. Dept. of
Agriculture Bulletins 57, 64.

Hawks and Owls From the Standpoint of the Farmer. Dept. of Agriculture
Bulletin 61.

Some Common Birds in Their Relation to Agriculture. Dept. of Agriculture
Bulletin 54.

Four Common Birds of the Farm and Garden. Yearbook 1895.

CHAPTER XII

HEALTH

When we have improved our soil and replanted our forests and learned the
most economical methods of mining our great deposits of coal, iron, and
other minerals; when we have made the waters do our work and carry our
freight and water our waste places; when we have learned to care for our
birds and our fishes, and taken measures to stop the ravages of insects;
when we have preserved our natural beauties and increased them by
planting trees, shrubs, and flowers, and filling unsightly corners;
there still remains to be considered the greatest subject of all,--the
people who are to enjoy this wonderful inheritance. If they were to be
weak and sick, suffering from all kinds of diseases, dying in great
numbers, all these things would count for little. But men and women, as
they are learning how to conserve their natural resources, are thinking
far more than ever before of health and how to keep it. It is necessary
to think of these things, for as people crowd into cities, where they
live a life different from that which nature intended, sickness and the
death-rate increase greatly.

Health, by which we mean the possession of a strong, well body, free
from pain, should bring with it great power to work and to think and to
benefit the world; and should also bring great happiness and enjoyment
to the person who possesses it, for though sick people may be happy, and
well people unhappy, yet it is a general rule that to be strong and well
is the first great step toward being happy.

The question, "Is life worth living?" was once happily answered, "It
depends upon the liver;" and it is true in both senses, for not only
does happiness depend on what one gets out of life, but on good
digestion. It is only the person who feels well who really enjoys life.

The person who can get up each morning able to do a day's work or have a
day's enjoyment, is the one on whom we must depend for the world's work
and invention. We seldom find a strong, vigorous mind in a weak body.

On the other hand, the invalid is the idle member of the family or the
community. He can not find pleasure for himself nor do anything to help
others, and not only that, but he must be cared for by others, thus
taking the labor of the sick person himself and of his nurse. It is
coming to be seen that this is a great waste of time, of money, of
work, and of happiness, and people are determining that if these wastes
can be stopped, it is well worth all the time and thought and money
necessary to bring about the change.

People everywhere are thinking about health, and because of this,
Christian Science, the Emmanuel Movement and the various sects which
practise faith or mental healing have sprung up.

Hospitals and health officers are doing much for the public health.
Doctors themselves are changing their ideas and are teaching us not only
how to cure but how to prevent disease.

Doctors are also seeking not only to prevent disease but to find new
ways of treating it. They are discarding drugs in as many cases as
possible, frequently using serums in which cultures from the disease
itself are used for its cure.

Health means more ability to work, more means of learning, of
accomplishing great things, more pleasures in every day that is lived;
and so it is as important to preserve health, in order to enjoy life, as
it is to prevent death. We can realize how few persons have perfect
health by noting the common salutation "How do you do?" or "How are
you?"

Serious sickness is such as renders a person entirely unable to work.
Benefit societies have found that the average number of days of sickness
per year from each person under seventy years of age is ten, of which
at least two are spent in bed.

About a million and a half people die each year in the United States,
and it is estimated that twice that number, or three million persons,
are constantly unable even to care for themselves. The effect of this is
felt on the patient himself, in suffering, in loss of time in which he
is unable to earn money, and in the amount spent for doctors, medicine,
and nursing. It is felt on the family, in which the household machinery
is thrown out while the wife and mother nurses the sick members of the
family, or is herself too ill to work, or when the father's income stops
on account of sickness.

The entire community suffers from the constant idleness of three million
persons, as well as from the deaths which withdraw a still larger number
of persons from actual work for a period of two to five days during the
time of death and burial of the bodies of members of the family.

Then there is all the long train of small ailments, which do not make us
seriously ill, often do not even keep us from work, but which do take
away from the pleasure and enjoyment of life, which render work a burden
instead of a delight, and lessen our ability to work by many degrees.

Not only this, but they all have within them the possibility of
developing into serious diseases. Such lesser troubles are colds,
headache, catarrh, dyspepsia, nervousness, neuralgia, sore throat, skin
eruptions, rheumatism, toothache, earache, affections of the eyes,
lameness, sprains, bruises, cuts, and burns.

Civilization has brought us great blessings but it has also brought with
it many dangers to health. Professor Irving Fisher of Yale says:

"The invention of houses has made it possible for mankind to spread all
over the globe but it is responsible for tuberculosis or consumption.
The invention of cooking has widened the variety of man's diet but has
led to the decay of his teeth. The invention of the alphabet and
printing has produced eye strain with all its attendant evils. The
invention of chairs has led to spinal curvature, etc., etc. Yet it would
be foolish even if it were possible to attempt to return to nature in
the sense of abolishing civilization.

"The cure for eye strain is not in disregarding the invention of
reading, but in introducing the invention of glasses. The cure for
tuberculosis is not in the destruction of houses but in ventilation. It
is a little knowledge that is dangerous. Civilization can, with fuller
knowledge, bring its own cure, and make the 'kingdom of man' far larger
than the 'nature' people can ever dream of."

Until within the last few years, sickness and death were regarded from
a religious standpoint. All sickness was to be borne with patience and
resignation because all our sufferings were sent by an all-wise
Providence. But since science has clearly proved that typhoid fever is
usually caused by an impure water supply, and that boiling the water
would prevent the suffering, expense and possible death; that the
dreaded yellow fever can be banished from communities that destroy the
eggs of certain mosquitoes; and many other facts in regard to health
have been learned, a great change has come over the popular belief. It
is seen that, to a great extent, man holds his own fate and is
responsible for his own suffering, and people are eager to learn more
about their own bodies, how to cure them and how to keep them well.

This knowledge has already done much to prolong life. The average length
of life in India, where no attempt is made to check disease, is
twenty-five years. In England the length of life has doubled in a few
generations. In Sweden, where the people live a sanitary life, the
average is over fifty years, in this country, forty-five years.

Insurance companies and benefit societies keep close watch of their
members and they report that a person ten years old may now count on
living to be sixty years of age. That is the average age, whereas a
hundred years ago the average expectation of life at that age was only
fifty-three years.

And this is true in spite of the fact that people have been crowding
into cities, that they are living on richer foods, taking less exercise
in the open air, living in houses which shut out the fresh air, and
doing dozens of other things that have tended to lower rather than to
raise the average.

We can scarcely realize the possibilities of life if, with all the
present scientific knowledge of disease and health, we could have a
generation of people living according to nature's laws.

Life can be not only lengthened but strengthened. There are many
instances of frail, feeble children who have developed into
exceptionally strong men and women. One of the most noted is Von
Humboldt, the great scientist, who as a child was very weak physically,
and, he himself says, was mentally below the average, but who lived to
the age of ninety, and developed one of the greatest minds of his
century.

Doctor Horace Fletcher, noted for his theories in regard to eating, was
rejected at the age of forty-six for life insurance but so strengthened
his constitution by careful living that by the time he was fifty he not
only obtained his life insurance but celebrated his birthday by riding
one hundred and ninety miles on his bicycle.

If we could imagine a person who all his life had lived in a locality
where the air was pure; in a house where fresh air entered day and
night, and which was heated to a uniform temperature; whose food had
always consisted of the most pure and nutritious material prepared in
the most wholesome way, eaten slowly and in proper quantity; if bathing,
sleep, rest, exercise, brain work and pleasure had each its due
proportion; if he could be always guarded from contagion and accidents,
we can imagine that such a person would be free from disease and that
death might be long deferred. Of course, death can not be prevented,
only postponed, but disease can be prevented, and so we can increase the
chances of postponing death. Doctors tell us that under ideal conditions
there would be only one cause of death--old age.

There is no question that under such conditions life could be prolonged
far beyond what is now usually considered its span. One hundred years or
more might easily, we imagine, become the average of life, instead of
the great exception.

We can hope for these things in the future though it will take several
generations at least to bring them all about, but we need not wait so
long for some of the best results. There are many things that can be
done at once to prolong life and prevent illness. Since we know that
many diseases are preventable and we know the suffering and sorrow, as
well as expense, that come from sickness and premature death, we should
all eagerly unite in doing all that we can to stop these ravages.

There are two agencies that will help to bring this about: individual or
private means, and general or public means. Both are absolutely
necessary if we are to be successful in stamping out disease. Professor
Fisher says: "Personal hygiene means the strengthening of our defenses
against disease. Public hygiene seeks to destroy the germs before they
reach our bodily defenses."

In the first place, in order to learn what we may do to lengthen the
span of life we must learn something of the nature of disease. Doctors
tell us that diseases are of two classes. The first are hereditary, or
inherited; those which pass from parents to their children and often run
through an entire family. It is more often the _tendency_ to disease
that is inherited, rather than the disease itself, and so even these
inherited diseases may often be prevented by careful living.

Diseases which may be inherited include rheumatism, gout, scrofula,
diabetes, cancer and insanity. This class of diseases is the most
difficult to prevent and to cure. For some of them no cure has been
found.

The other class comprises the diseases of environment, or personal
surroundings,--that is, our manner of living both as regards our private
life and our relations to other people. These diseases are largely
preventable and it is with them that most of the work of prevention is
to be carried on.

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