Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1915 — The Birds. [ARTICLE]

The Birds.

Why should birds fear a human being? They have no fear of the horse or cow. There are birds that even light on the back of a cow and devour the flies that are troublesome. If mankind were kind and thoughtful of the rights of birds what a pleasure it might be. Every small boy and girl should be taught to love all birds and never to disturb or frighten them. Their companionship and their songs more than repay the little fruit or grain that they eat. And we connot forget that but for the aid of the birds we could not have fruit or grain. “The hop aphis,” the North American tells us, "developing 13 generations in a year, at the end of the twelfth generation would have multiplied to the inconceivable number of ten sextillions of individuals.” Forbush says: “If this brood were marshaled in a line 10 to the inch, it would extend to a point so sunk in profundity of space that, light from the head of the procession, traveling at the rate of 1 84,000 miles per second, would require 2,500 years to reach the earth.” Think once what would be our condition if the birds should fail to destroy this one kind of insect. And other kinds are innumerable. What love and protection and care we owe these birds!—Milwaukee Journal.