GAME-COVERTS 177 



The fruits and berries of the under- 

 cover are an important consideration and 

 materially add to the attractions of a 

 wood for pheasants, especially those that 

 are persistent through late winter. No 

 plant can produce a good crop without 

 light and air. Writing of the snow-berry 

 — one of the most valuable forms of 

 under-cover in this respect — an experienced 

 gardener^ says that it generally occurs 

 in neglected shrubberies as an unpleasing, 

 half-starved weed, the right treatment 

 being to collect the suckers and plant 

 them in a solid mass on open ground 

 with nothing above them : then in spring 

 when the sap is rising and the first signs 

 of foliage peeping out, they should be 

 cut down level with soil so that nothing 

 is visible. The result is a compact 

 growth some three feet high in the 

 same year, hardly recognizable as the 

 same plant, covered in summer with 

 delicate pink flowers, and in autumn set 

 all over with the white fruit balls. 



^ Mrs. Earle in Pot Pourri from a Surrey Garden. 



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