160 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



belong fairly to my partners. Catbirds are wise 

 enough soon to learn which are their trees; as for 

 robin redbreast, he is never particular. In Florida 

 the mocking bird soon learns to keep close to us and 

 pick up the pieces. 



Say what you will, birds never take any more than 

 enough for sustenance; they are not wasteful. If 

 you will plant a hedge of Tartarian honeysuckle and 

 then a wind-break of mountain ash, with wild cherries 

 alternating, you will find not only a beautiful dis- 

 play of flowers and berries, but the birds will go there 

 instead of dining in your garden. Where you have 

 large fields of raspberries and currants, bird intrusion 

 is not noticeable. 



Coax your neighbors to plant giving them trees 

 and bushes. Plant the glens and the woods and 

 the forest edges with bird feed. My father went 

 still further, for he would graft the wild cherry trees 

 with choice sorts, " to give the birds better cherries. " 

 One of our best authorities notes the mulberry as a 

 good tree to grow wild, or along the streets, to call 

 the birds from cultivated fruits. 



Professor Real, of the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege, specifies among other trees and bushes, the shad- 

 berry, and for winter food he would have on hand 

 the bittersweet, the pokeberry, the bayberry, the hack- 

 berry, and plenty of mountain-ash trees. All of 

 these are easily found from New England to the 

 Pacific coast, and I would lay special emphasis 

 on growing more mountain-ash trees. A single tree 



