The Chronicle LEVIN. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1916. LEVIN'S SMALL BIRD PEST.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 January 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1916. LEVIN'S SMALL BIRD PEST.

lho isitnill Gird is busy on the fruit diet this montii, subsequent To his uvu weeks' riot oil ripe gram. ltasp-iierry-uruwcrii and plum-groweic. shaded 1 iii the levies; trie peach-grower ami vlio apple-grower came nest. The bird nuisance is an annual one around Levin, chieiiy because there is 110 systematic attempt made to poison the pest. k low larmer.s ouy poisoned grain and lay it, but the use 01 this is small wlie 11 no general day is arranged for the poisoning. A conference that promised suoeesslul effort tooii place earlylast year, but Tor reasons perhaps unavoidable the tentative arrangements made by the conference lor a 00-opera-tivo poisoning effort m the early springtime were allowed to fall through. The ilorowhenua County Council should do its duty 'in this matter by laying plans, kmg J beiorO' hand, for a poisoning throughout the district. The small boys are ''on strike" this year. The tact may not be known to the council, but a tact it remains, and the council's expenditure oh purchase of birds'eggw tills season ivill give conformation to this statement. The hoys have found a comparative scarcity of turds in soma parts of the town, anil have agreed amongst certain of the prune "nesters" that there will be a "ca canny" sea--B(in until 1917 to the' end that hirdis may multiply and the task ot getting eggs become more easy than at present. If the hoys are justified in this resolve the moral for fruitgrowers and agriculturists Is that now is the time for a special effort. A properly organzed campaign of bird poisoning ior August and September next •would reduce the pest to a minimum, and thus enable John Sparrow and Brother Blackbird to become useful adjuncts to the farm, instead of the featherred narts thatj their present numerical strength constitutes them.