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.