Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1900 — Necessity of Birds and Bees. [ARTICLE]

Necessity of Birds and Bees.

Isaac W. Brown, of Rochester, addressed the Audubon society at - -'•'9 Indianapolis the other night upon “Birds and Bees.” He said the time is coming when the birds will lie protected the same as the farmer protects his chickens and turkeys He attributes the failure in wheut crops- for the past few years in this state to the destruction of quail and other birds which destroy insects. “The farmers of this state ought to raise four times us much wheat as they do,’’ said he, “but they cannot do it as long as the hunters from Cincinnati, Chicago and other cities are permitted to kill the quails. These birds -were intended to destroy the Hessian fly, which is the cause of the failure of our wheat crops. In our county the people are beginning to see the necessity of protecting the birds, and it would be dangerous for a hunter to attempt to kill them, It is just as easy for farmers to raise five bushels of clover seed to the acre ns it to raise one, but it cannot be done so long as the bumble bees are destroyed by the farmers.- They are .the agents which distribute pollen to the red clover blossoms, and if they are not present to do it- the clover seed crop is bound to be a failure. Each farmer should see that a place is prepared for the bees to make their home and they should be protected. Indiana is the best territory in the world suited for the growing of clover seed, and if the bumble bees were not destroyed the crop would be much greater than it is.