A Civic Biology Part 23

Mammals as Food.--When we consider the amount of wealth invested in cattle and other domesticated animals bred and used for food in the United States, we see the great economic importance of mammals. The United States, Argentina, and Australia are the greatest producers of cattle. In this country hogs are largely raised for food. They are used fresh, salted, smoked as ham and bacon, and pickled. Sheep, which are raised in great quant.i.ties in Australia, Argentina, Russia, Uruguay, and this country, are one of the world's greatest meat supplies.

Goats, deer, many larger game animals, seals, walruses, etc., give food to people who live in parts of the earth that are less densely populated.

Domesticated Animals.-- When man emerged from his savage state on the earth, one of the first signs of the beginning of civilization was the domestication of animals. The dog, the cow, sheep, and especially the horse, mark epochs in the advance of civilization. Beasts of burden are used the world over, horses almost all over the world, certain cattle, as the water buffalo, in tropical Malaysia; camels, goats, and the llama are also used as draft animals in some other countries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Feeding silkworms. The caterpillars are the white objects in the trays.]

Man's wealth in many parts of the world is estimated in terms of his cattle or herds of sheep. So many products come from these sources that a long list might be given, such as meats, milk, b.u.t.ter, cheese, wool, or other body coverings, leather, skins, and hides used for other purposes. Great industries are directly dependent upon our domesticated animals, as the making of shoes, the manufacture of woolen cloth, the tanning industry, and many others.

Uses for Clothing.--The manufacture of silk is due to the production of raw silk by the silkworm, the caterpillar of a moth. It lives upon the mulberry and makes a coc.o.o.n from which the silk is wound. The Chinese silkworm is now raised to a slight extent in southern California. China, j.a.pan, Italy, and France, because of cheaper labor, are the most successful silk-raising countries.

The use of wool gives rise to many great industries. After the wool is cut from the sheep, it has to be washed and scoured to get out the dirt and grease. This wool fat or lanoline is used in making soap and ointments. The wool is next "carded," the fibers being interwoven by the fine teeth of the carding machine or "combed," the fibers here being pulled out parallel to each other. Carded wool becomes woolen goods; combed wool, worsted goods.

The wastes are also utilized, being mixed with "shoddy" (wool from cloth cuttings or rags) to make woolen goods of a cheap grade.

Goat hair, especially that of the Angora and the Cashmere goat, has much use in the clothing industries. Camel's hair and alpaca are also used.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Polar bear, a fur-bearing mammal which is rapidly being exterminated. Why?]

Fur.--The furs of many domesticated and wild animals are of importance. The Carnivora as a group are of much economic importance as the source of most of our fur. The fur seal fisheries alone amount to many millions of dollars annually. Otters, skunks, sables, weasels, foxes, and minks are of considerable importance as fur producers. Even cats are now used for fur, usually masquerading under some other name. The fur of the beaver, one of the largest of the rodents or gnawing mammals, is of considerable value, as are the coats of the chinchilla, muskrats, squirrels, and other rodents.

The fur of the rabbit and nutria are used in the manufacture of felt hats.

The quills of the porcupines (greatly developed and stiffened hairs) have a slight commercial value.

Conservation of Fur-bearing Animals Needed.--As time goes on and the furs of wild animals become scarcer and scarcer through overkilling, we find the need for protection and conservation of many of these fast-vanis.h.i.+ng wild forms more and more imperative. Already breeding of some fur-bearing animals has been tried with success, and cheap subst.i.tutes for wild animal skins are coming more and more into the markets. Black-fox breeding has been tried successfully in Prince Edward Island, Canada, $2500 to $3000 being given for a single skin. Skunk, marten, and mink are also being bred for the market. Game preserves in this country and Canada are also helping to preserve our wild fur-bearing animals.

Animal Oils.--Whale oil, obtained from the fat or "blubber" of whales, is used extensively for lubricating. Neat's-foot oil comes from the feet of cattle and is also used in lubrication. Tallow and lard, two fats from cattle, sheep, and pigs, have so many well-known uses that comment is unnecessary. Cod-liver oil is used medically and is well known. But it is not so widely known that a fish called the menhaden or "moss bunkers" of the Atlantic coast produces over 3,000,000 gallons of oil every year and is being rapidly exterminated in consequence.

Hides, Horns, Hoofs, etc.--Leathers, from cattle, horses, sheep, and goats, are used everywhere. Leather manufacture is one of the great industries of the Eastern states, hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in its manufacturing plants. Horns and bones are utilized for making combs, b.u.t.tons, handles for brushes, etc. Glue is made from the animal matter in bones. Ivory, obtained from elephant, walrus, and other tusks, forms a valuable commercial product. It is largely used for knife handles, piano keys, combs, etc.

Perfumes.--The musk deer, musk ox, and muskrat furnish a valuable perfume called musk. Civet cats also give us a somewhat similar perfume. Ambergris, a basis for delicate perfumes, comes from the intestines of the sperm whale.

Protozoa.--The Protozoa have played an important part in rock building. The chalk beds of Kansas and other chalk formations are made up to a large extent of the tiny skeletons of _Protozoa_, called _Foraminifera_. Some limestone rocks are also composed in large part of such skeletons. The skeletons of some species are used to make a polis.h.i.+ng powder.

Sponges.--The sponges of commerce have the skeleton composed of tough fibers of material somewhat like that of cow's horn. This fiber is elastic and has the power of absorbing water. In a living state, the h.o.r.n.y fiber sponge is a dark-colored fleshy ma.s.s, usually found attached to rocks. The warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the West Indies furnish most of our sponges. The sponges are pulled up from their resting place on the bottom, by means of long-handled rakes operated by men in boats or are secured by divers. They are then spread out on the sh.o.r.e in the sun, and the living tissues allowed to decay; then after treatment consisting of beating, bleaching, and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, the bath sponge is ready for the market.

Some forms of coral are of commercial value. The red coral of the Mediterranean Sea is the best example.

[Ill.u.s.tration: In some countries little metal images of Buddha are placed within the sh.e.l.ls of living pearl oysters or clams. Over these the mantle of the animal secretes a layer of mother of pearl as is shown in the picture.]

Pearls and Mother of Pearl.--Pearls are prized the world over. It is a well-known fact that even in this country pearls of some value are sometimes found within the sh.e.l.ls of the fresh-water mussel and the oyster.

Most of the finest, however, come from the waters around Ceylon. If a pearl is cut open and examined carefully, it is found to be a deposit of the mother-of-pearl layer of the sh.e.l.l around some central structure. It has been believed that any foreign substance, as a grain of sand, might irritate the mantle at a given point, thus stimulating it to secrete around the substance. It now seems likely that most perfect pearls are due to the growth within the mantle of the clam or oyster of certain parasites, stages in the development of a flukeworm. The irritation thus set up in the tissue causes mother of pearl to be deposited around the source of irritation, with the subsequent formation of a pearl.

The pearl-b.u.t.ton industry in this country is largely dependent upon the fresh-water mussel, the sh.e.l.ls of which are used. This mussel is being so rapidly depleted that the national government is working out a means of artificial propagation of these animals.

Honey and Wax.--Honeybees[29] are kept in hives. A colony consists of a queen, a female who lays the eggs for the colony, the drones, whose duty it is to fertilize the eggs, and the workers.

Footnote 29: Their daily life may be easily watched in the schoolroom, by means of one of the many good and cheap observation hives now made to be placed in a window frame.

Directions for making a small observation hive for school work can be found in Hodge, _Nature Study and Life_, Chap.

XIV. Bulletin No. 1, U. S. Department of Agriculture, ent.i.tled _The Honey Bee_, by Frank Benton, is valuable for the amateur beekeeper. It may be obtained for twenty-five cents from the Superintendent of Doc.u.ments, Union Building, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cells of honeycomb, queen cell on right at bottom.]

The cells of the comb are built by the workers out of wax secreted from the under surface of their bodies. The wax is cut off in thin plates by means of the wax shears between the two last joints of the hind legs. These cells are used to place the eggs of the queen in, one egg to each cell, and the young are hatched after three days, to begin life as footless white grubs.

The young are fed for several days, then shut up in the cells and allowed to form pupae. Eventually they break their cells and take their place as workers in the hive, first as nurses for the young and later as pollen gatherers and honey makers.

We have already seen (pages 37 to 39) that the honeybee gathers nectar, which she swallows, keeping the fluid in her crop until her return to the hive. Here it is forced out into cells of the comb. It is now thinner than what we call honey. To thicken it, the bees swarm over the open cells, moving their wings very rapidly, thus evaporating some of the water. A hive of bees have been known to make over thirty-one pounds of honey in a single day, although the average is very much less than this. It is estimated from twenty to thirty millions of dollars' worth of honey and wax are produced each year in this country.

Cochineal and Lac.--Among other products of insect origin is cochineal, a red coloring matter, which consists of the dried bodies of a tiny insect, one of the plant lice which lives on the cactus plants in Mexico and Central America. The lac insect, another one of the plant lice, feeds on the juices of certain trees in India and pours out a substance from its body which after treatment forms sh.e.l.lac. Sh.e.l.lac is of much use as a basis for varnish.

Gall Insects.--Oak galls, growths caused by the sting of wasp-like insects, give us products used in ink making, in tanning, and in making pyrogallic acid which is much used in developing photographs.

Insects destroy Harmful Plants or Animals.--Some forms of animal life are of great importance because of their destruction of harmful plants or animals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An insect friend of man. An ichneumon fly boring in a tree to lay its eggs in the burrow of a boring insect harmful to that tree.]

A near relative of the bee, called the ichneumon fly, does man indirectly considerable good because of its habit of laying its eggs and rearing the young in the bodies of caterpillars which are harmful to vegetation. Some of the ichneumons even bore into trees in order to deposit their eggs in the larvae of wood-boring insects. It is safe to say that the ichneumons save millions of dollars yearly to this country.

Several beetles are of value to man. Most important of these is the natural enemy of the orange-tree scale, the ladybug, or ladybird beetle. In New York state it may often be found feeding upon the plant lice, or aphids, which live on rosebushes. The carrion beetles and many water beetles act as scavengers. The s.e.xton beetles bury dead carca.s.ses of animals. Ants in tropical countries are particularly useful as scavengers.

Insects, besides pollinating flowers, often do a service by eating harmful weeds. Thus many harmful plants are kept in check. We have noted that they spin silk, thus forming clothing; that in many cases they are preyed upon, and that they supply an enormous mult.i.tude of birds, fishes, and other animals with food.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The common toad, an insect eater.]

Use of the Toad.--The toad is of great economic importance to man because of its diet. No less than eighty-three species of insects, mostly injurious, have been proved to enter into the dietary. A toad has been observed to snap up one hundred and twenty-eight flies in half an hour.

Thus at a low estimate it could easily destroy one hundred insects during a day and do an immense service to the garden during the summer. It has been estimated by Kirkland that a single toad may, on account of the cutworms which it kills, be worth $19.88 each season it lives, if the damage done by each cutworm be estimated at only one cent. Toads also feed upon slugs and other garden pests.

Birds eat Insects.--The food of birds makes them of the greatest economic importance to our country. This is because of the relation of insects to agriculture. A large part of the diet of most of our native birds includes insects harmful to vegetation. Investigations undertaken by the United States Department of Agriculture (Division of Biological Survey) show that a surprisingly large number of birds once believed to harm crops really perform a service by killing injurious insects. Even the much maligned crow lives to some extent upon insects. Swallows in the Southern states kill the cotton-boll weevil, one of our worst insect pests. Our earliest visitor, the bluebird, subsists largely on injurious insects, as do woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, cuckoos, kingbirds, and many others. The robin, whose presence in the cherry tree we resent, during the rest of the summer does much good by feeding upon noxious insects. Birds use the food substances which are most abundant around them at the time.[30]

Footnote 30: The following quotation from I. P. Trimble, _A Treatise on the Insect Enemies of Fruit and Shade Trees_, bears out this statement: "On the fifth of May, 1864, ...

seven different birds ... had been feeding freely upon small beetles.... There was a great flight of beetles that day; the atmosphere was teeming with them. A few days after, the air was filled with Ephemera flies, and the same species of birds were then feeding upon them."

During the outbreak of Rocky Mountain locusts in Nebraska in 1874-1877, Professor Samuel Aughey saw a long-billed marsh wren carry thirty locusts to her young in an hour. At this rate, for seven hours a day, a brood would consume 210 locusts per day, and the pa.s.serine birds of the eastern half of Nebraska, allowing only twenty broods to the square mile, would destroy daily 162,771,000 of the pests. The average locust weighs about fifteen grains, and is capable each day of consuming its own weight of standing forage crops, which at $10 per ton would be worth $1743.26. This case may serve as an ill.u.s.tration of the vast good that is done every year by the destruction of insect pests fed to nestling birds.

And it should be remembered that the nesting season is also that when the destruction of injurious insects is most needed; that is, at the period of greatest agricultural activity and before the parasitic insects can be depended on to reduce the pests. The encouragement of birds to nest on the farm and the discouragement of nest robbing are therefore more than mere matters of sentiment; they return an actual cash equivalent, and have a definite bearing on the success or failure of the crops.--_Year Book of the Department of Agriculture._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Food of some common birds. Which of the above birds should be protected by man and why?]

Birds eat Weed Seeds.--Not only do birds aid man in his battles with destructive insects, but seed-eating birds eat the seeds of weeds. Our native sparrows (not the English sparrow), the mourning dove, bobwhite, and other birds feed largely upon the seeds of many of our common weeds. This fact alone is sufficient to make birds of vast economic importance.

Not all birds are seed or insect feeders. Some, as the cormorants, ospreys, gulls, and terns, are active fishers. Near large cities gulls especially act as scavengers, destroying much floating garbage that otherwise might be washed ash.o.r.e to become a menace to health. The vultures of India and semitropical countries are of immense value as scavengers. Birds of prey (owls) eat living mammals, including many rodents; for example, field mice, rats, and other pests.

Extermination of our Native Birds.--Within our own times we have witnessed the almost total extermination of some species of our native birds. The American pa.s.senger pigeon, once very abundant in the Middle West, is now extinct. Audubon, the greatest of all American bird lovers, gives a graphic account of the migration of a flock of these birds. So numerous were they that when the flock rose in the air the sun was darkened, and at night the weight of the roosting birds broke down large branches of the trees in which they rested. To-day not a single wild specimen of this pigeon can be found, because they were slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands during the breeding season. The wholesale killing of the snowy egret to furnish ornaments for ladies' headwear is another example of the improvidence of our fellow-countrymen. Charles Dudley Warner said, "Feathers do not improve the appearance of an ugly woman, and a pretty woman needs no such aid."

Wholesale killing for plumage, eggs, and food, and, alas, often for mere sport, has reduced the number of our birds more than one half in thirty states and territories within the past fifteen years. Every crusade against indiscriminate killing of our native birds should be welcomed by all thinking Americans. The recent McLane bill which aims at the protection of migrating birds and the bird-protecting clause of the recently pa.s.sed tariff bill shows that this country is awaking to the value of her bird life. Without the birds the farmer would have a hopeless fight against insect pests. The effect of killing native birds is now well seen in Italy and j.a.pan, where insects are increasing and do greater damage each year to crops and trees.

Of the eight hundred or more species of birds in the United States, only six species of hawks (Cooper's and the sharp-s.h.i.+nned hawk in particular), and the great horned owl, which prey upon useful birds; the sapsucker, which kills or injures many trees because of its fondness for the growing layer of the tree; the bobolink, which destroys yearly $2,000,000 worth of rice in the South; the crow, which feeds on crops as well as insects; and the English sparrow, may be considered as enemies of man.

The English Sparrow.--The English sparrow is an example of a bird introduced for the purpose of insect destruction, that has done great harm because of its relation to our native birds. Introduced at Brooklyn in 1850 for the purpose of exterminating the cankerworm, it soon abandoned an insect diet and has driven out most of our native insect feeders.

Investigations by the United States Department of Agriculture have shown that in the country these birds and their young feed to a large extent upon grain, thus showing them to be injurious to agriculture. Dirty and very prolific, it already has worked its way from the East as far as the Pacific coast. In this area the bluebird, song sparrow, and yellowbird have all been forced to give way, as well as many larger birds of great economic value and beauty. The English sparrow has become a pest especially in our cities, and should be exterminated in order to save our native birds. It is feared in some quarters that the English starling which has recently been introduced into this country may in time prove a pest as formidable as the English sparrow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: This shows how some snakes (constrictors) kill and eat their prey. (Series photographed by C. W. Beebe and Clarence Halter.)]