240 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



The gourds best adapted for nests are the Turk's 

 cap gourds, the calabash, the Hercules' club, and the 

 dipper. The club gourds are long and about five 

 inches in diameter and when thoroughly ripe and dry 

 should have a hole two inches in diameter cut near 

 the upper part of the large portion and the contents 

 removed. The gourd should then be attached to the 

 side of a tree in the same position a hollow limb 

 would naturally occupy. Put a. little fine sawdust 

 in the bottom for nesting, as that is all the material 

 used by the woodpeckers and flickers which use this 

 form of nest. The smaller calabashes and the Turk's 

 cap should have a hole an inch or an inch and a 

 quarter iu one side and be fastened up on the top 

 of a porch pillar or other sheltered position for wrens 

 or chickadees. A larger hole is necessary for blue- 

 birds. 



The large calabashes, often fifteen to eighteen 

 inches in diameter, when sawed in two make excellent 

 natatoriums and feeding dishes, but are not so well 

 adapted for nests, as they cannot be divided into 

 compartments very well. 



The raising of gourds is a very simple operation, 

 providing one has a long season in which to mature 

 the fruit. The seed should be started very early in 

 the house or hotbed, planting two or three seeds in 

 thumb pots plunged in the earth of the hotbed or in 

 a box of damp sand in a warm place in the house for 



