The Sparrow Pest.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 1, Issue 42, 20 June 1890, Page 2

The Sparrow Pest.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —In an article on " Acclimatisation" in a recent issue of your paper, you say, in writing of sparrows and rabbits, " If the country was' more thickly populated it would not matter, as nests of the sparrow and rabbit.

description might be kept within reasonable limits." One would certainly have thought that in a populous country like England the sparrow would not have, become the serious pest that it appears it is, if what I have read lately is true. I take the following from an English newspaper: "According to Mr Bell, a well-known - Cheshire farmer,' taking the acreage of wheat grown in Cheshire at 19,940, the loss by sparrows at four bushels per acre, at 4» 6d. per bushel, represented the sum of £17,946 to the country of Cheshire alone." He further calculates, on the same basis, that the loss over all England is £2iQ89,'353. That estimate, may, or may not, be correct; but it seems evident that sparrows are increasing to an alarming extent in England, as in a later number of the same paper I find the following relating to Dorset, a county widely separated from Cheshire. " Active steps are about to be taken in Dorsetshire, with a view, if possible, of checking the mischief now wrought in ' that county by the ravages of sparrows, which have increased during the last year to such an extent that in some parts of Dorset nearly half the crops are destroyed. The damage, : at the lowest computation, is put at £2O to £4O on each farm. The garden crops; are damaged to a similar extent; whilst in some villages thatched buildings are-almost stripped by those birds." If this-is the state of things with' regard :to sparrows in England, what may we not expect here ? where, if the people do not kill them, there is little to check their increase except scarcity of food. It seems to me doubtful whether they can be kept down in'a district like this, sufficiently' not to be a great- : peat; but perhaps they may be prevented. from becoming worse than one of the plagues of Egypt.' '•■■■■■' -'" I am,'&c, '■ .-■■■■'■ ■ ■ Sigma. •* : June 16,1890.