_The needless destruction of birds is not only a wanton and cruel
sport, but costs the farmers of the country a vast sum of money by
allowing injurious insects to flourish._
It was spring. The skies were blue, the grass was green and the
trees were covered with leaves. All nature seemed glad. The farmers
alone were dissatisfied and angry. And why? Because the birds had
eaten so many of their cherries and so much of their grain. They
called a meeting at the town hall to consider what could be done to
prevent this devastation.
At the meeting, the farmers spoke. Each told of his loss through
the greediness of the birds. One farmer said, “The birds come into
my oat field and light on the stalks and actually pick oats out of
the stalks.”
Another one said, “They peck holes in the peaches, and apples, and
eat up the cherries and figs, so that I lose a lot of fruit every
year.”
Still another said, “I wish you could hear the noise they make
around my house. They fly down and eat the chicken feed, then they
fly off to the corn field and eat corn. Heaven only knows how much
it takes to feed them.” And so it was that every farmer complained
of the poor little birds.
Finally they decided that all the birds should be killed. Poor
birds! They had but one friend at the meeting--the school master.
In vain he begged for his friends, the birds; in vain he spoke of
their use to the farmers--of their sweet music. The farmers would
not listen, and the decree went forth that all the birds must go.
By summer all had been killed by the farmers, or by traps set by
the farmers’ boys. The little ones were left to die in the nest.
Not a bird was to be seen.
And now hundreds of worms ate everything that grew. The branches of
the trees were brown and dry, for the worms had eaten the leaves.
There were worms everywhere--but no birds to eat the worms and stop
their ruining the crops. The farmers now realized what a terrible
mistake they had made in killing the birds. Their crops were
ruined. Starvation stared them in the face. What could they do?
They went to the school master to ask his advice. “My friends,”
said he, “you must get birds from somewhere; without birds your
farms are worthless. You see you need the birds to destroy the
worms, or else the worms will destroy your crops.”
At great expense and trouble the farmers went to a distant country
to buy birds. They were brought in cages and turned out to make
their homes in the trees. But it took many years to undo the harm
that had been done by the foolish act of the farmers in destroying
their bird friends.