THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



are of great use in destroying the seeds of noxious 

 weeds, and the swift and the nighthawks sweep the 

 air of insect pests. Bird culture should mean a 

 systematic effort to encourage the approach of wild 

 birds, and the domestication of all useful birds — 

 involving the supply of shelter and abundance of 

 food. This, after all, is not so difficult a matter. 

 They take our berries and cherries because they 

 have nothing else to eat. When we have learned 

 to count them into our families, and to provide for 

 their sustenance, as we do for our cows and hens, 

 we shall find that the birds do little harm to our 

 gardens. 



I treasure the memory of a father who used to 

 graft choice cherries into the wild choke cherries, 

 "to give the birds better food, and what they 

 like." I have a Tartarian honeysuckle hedge, 

 and just as my raspberries ripen this hedge is cov- 

 ered with bushels of berries that the birds pro- 

 nounce very fine. They prefer these to the rasp- 

 berries that perch among the thorns. So I find 

 that I am cultivating birds and honeysuckles at the 

 same time. Gradually they have come to consider 

 the hedge their own, and I am soundly scolded 

 if I approach their feasts with any appearance 



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