aten 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 nee