THE SMALL BIRD PEST.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17098, 22 February 1916, Page 4

THE SMALL BIRD PEST.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Few people trouble to estimate the direct loss sustained through small birds at sowing time and during the harvest and in tho orchard. Several farmers have admitted to me that thenlosses would pay their rates and taxes, and in some eases double that amount, not to mention the expenditure in labour and- money and the worry during the harvest time, just to frighten the birds from place to place. On a farm of '2OO acres it will cost a careful farmer £8 for ammunition and over £2 in wages to fire it off. Now this is pure waste of £5 every year, which would buy the heads of a hundred and thirty dozen sparrows at 9d a dozen. I feel confident there are not that many birds,on a'farm of 200 ; acres. It seems to bo a settled argument that if the local bodies throughout New Zealand were to strike a special rate for this purpose alone, it woukl not be necessary to waste much time and ammunition on them, for they would bo almost extinct. It is necessary to sow poisoned grain, as tlie larks are as destructive as sparrows, 'fhey settle on the stalks of grain, vide them to the ground and then eat the grain. They are also a pest at sowing time, for they pull up the grain and leave the j ground white in pjaces. Larks cannot be trapped or shot in large numbers like sparrows, so the only method of dealing with them is to distribute poisoned grain at sowing time and continue scattering it until November. It is very necessary that the poisoned grain should be delivered to farmers once a month so as to make sure that all arc supplied. . The cost would be compared with the results that would be achieved, for many farmers live • ten or fifteen miles from the distributing centres and cannot always call for it. Besides, sowing time is one of the busiest seasons of the year, and no farmer would mind 1 thq extra cost of delivery, for ho would be sure that his neighbour had poisoned grain to sow and that lie was- doing his part to deal with the bird pest. This is an important point. Of course, there could be more distributing centfQs, but the delivery is by far the best, for the grain would have to bo put oil a cart to be taken to the distributing centres. The trouble in the past'has been that when farmers call for poisoned grain they only got from seven to fourteen pounds at a time, which would be sown in three days, and there would no none left for the next fortnight, while thQ best season for scattering the grain is rapidly passing. The county councils should not study the cost of destroying the birds; they should form an estimate of what every farmer loses each year through the bird pest. They would then strike a special rate and take measures to' exterminaite the pest in one year. This money would not be lost; it would be spent in the,district and pieve a source of employment. I realise that it, would take some I time to get the, different county councils and other bodies to fall into line and take united action. In the meantime, the sowing season is fast, approachis*. 1 :, so I hope they will act promptly.—l am, W. J. M'EVEDY. Southbridge, February 18.