ARTIFICIAL BERRIES. 255 



horses rather than mares. To prevent the snares from 

 twisting or " kinking," it is always desirable, prior to 

 spinning the hair, to immerse it in warm water, and, after 

 suspending a weight to the lower end of the hank, to 

 place it on a peg to dry. 



The fowler should also be provided with an ample 

 supply of berries. Those of the mountain-ash (EonnMr, 

 Sw. ; Sorbus aucuparia, Linn.) are the best ; for, to say 

 nothing of birds giving the preference to them, they hang 

 better on the stalk, and keep longer than any others. But, 

 failing these, the hawthorn ; the TJlfbcir, i. e., wolf-berry 

 {Viburnum Opulus, Linn.); the alder buckthorn (Bkam- 

 nus Frangula, Linn.) ; the bird-cherry tree (Hdgg, Sw. ; 

 Primus Padus, Linn.), with others, serve the purpose. 



The mountain-ash berries should be plucked as soon as 

 they are ripe, and have obtained their red colour, which, 

 in Sweden, is usually the beginning of September. If 

 allowed to remain longer on the tree, they drop off, and 

 are useless. The berries should be gathered in dry and 

 fine weather, and one should be careful that the several 

 clusters remain entire, as also to remove all leaves. It is 

 best to hang them up in a loft, or other airy situation, 

 where they may gradually dry. 



During certain years it happens that mountain-ash 

 berries are very scarce ; in Germany, therefore, they have 

 hit upon a method of preparing artificial ones. Any kind 

 of meal is kneaded with water into a hard dough, of which 

 pills, so to say, are formed of the size of the berries in 

 question ; these, after having been perforated with a large 

 needle, are placed in a warm oven to dry. They are then 

 immersed in a strong dye, or varnish, of which cinnabar, 

 grated very fine, forms a component part, and afterwards 

 exposed in the open air and well dried for the second 

 time. Subsequently, they are strung, like so many beads, 

 on short pieces of thread prepared in a peculiar manner, 



