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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