September, Ig9II 
in shady places, are especially favored by the feathered 
citizens of the forests. “The whitethorn, hornbeam, com- 
mon beech, gooseberry, honeysuckle, and red cedar are 
the most successfully used for nesting-copses. “Che ground 
for one of the nesting-hedges is carefully prepared, and 
the shrubs systematically and severely pruned at intervals. 
The new growth will form whorl-shaped ramifications that 
serve as sites for nests. These whorl-shaped sprouts are 
cut back annually, and made to ramify still more. Between 
these ‘‘stock bushes’ the dense growth of the hedge rises, 
and soon forms a compact thicket. One of these shelter- 
hedges on the estate has an average of one nest for every 
yard and a half. 
Winter feeding is second only to housing in making life 
suiterable to the birds in severe weather. After eleven years 
of study, the Baron developed three practical feeding de- 
vices—the food tree, the food house and the food ‘“‘bell.”’ 
The food tree is made by simply sprinkling a carefully 
prepared mixture over the branches of one of the coniferous 
trees. This is man’s imitation of a tree covered with a 
natural meal of insects’ eggs and larve. The most popular 
menu for the food tree the Baron found to be a compound 
of meat and white bread, ground, hemp, maw, poppy flower, 
white millet, oats, dried elderberries, sunflower seeds and 
ants’ eggs. To this is added about one and a half times as 
much beef or mutton suet. The mixture is poured on the 
tree hot. 
A similar winter dining-room for birds is the Hessian 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
347 
Food House, consisting essentially of two small tables 
placed beneath a roof mounted on four small posts. The 
lower table is merely to attract the feathered diners and in- 
duce them to notice the upper one, which contains most of 
the food. A strip of glass runs around the edge of the 
upper table, protecting it from the weather without hiding 
it from view. ‘The table is spread with any kind of bird 
food or seed, of which hemp is always the most acceptable. 
The ‘Food Bell” is an ingenious mechanical device that 
serves out food automatically. An inverted glass jar or 
bottle holds the supply of seed, which is fed through a tube 
to a bowl, or bell, below. The lower edge of the tube must 
extend just below the upper edge of the food dish. The ap- 
paratus works properly only when this construction is very 
carefully adjusted. 
The Experiment Station at Seebach is maintained as an 
object lesson and a school of instruction to all who want to 
learn of the practical work of bird protection. 
The Prussian government has directed its Forestry Com- 
missions to protect as far as possible all plantations serving 
as bird-shelters and, where ground is allotted, to have new 
shelters planted and nesting-boxes hung. The Hungarian 
government sent a trained investigator to Seebach to study 
methods of bird culture, and is now supplying nesting-boxes 
to its state forests of five million acres. We may leara 
trom the work of this new kind of experiment station that 
the protection of bird life goes hand in hand with foresz 
conservation, and is only one degree less important. 
The Wonderful Mechanism of the Watch 
NESS 
EW pieces of machinery show more marvel- 
ous features than that of the watch. Asa 
general proposition it may be stated that 
a watch is the smallest, most delicate in- 
strument of the same number of parts that 
has ever been devised. About one hun- 
dred and seventy-five different pieces of 
material enter into its construction, and upward of twenty- 
four hundred separate operations are comprised in its 
manufacture. 
Certain of the facts connected with its performance are 
almost incredible, when considered as a whole. A black- 
smith strikes several hundred blows on his anvil in a day 
and, as a matter of course, is glad when Sunday comes; but 
the roller jewel of a watch makes every day—and day after 
day—432,000 impacts against the fork, or 157,680,000 
blows during the course of a year, without stop or rest—or 
some 3,153,600,000 blows during the space of twenty years, 
the period for which a watch is usually guaranteed to keep 
good time. 
But the wonder of it does not cease here. It has been 
calculated that the power that moves the watch is equiva- 
lent to only four times the force used in a flea’s jump. The 
watch-power is, therefore, what might be termed the equiva- 
lent of a four flea-power. One horse-power would suffice to 
operate 270,000,000 watches. 
Furthermore, the balance-wheel of a watch is moved by 
this four flea-power one and forty-three one-hundredths 
inches with each vibration, or 3,55834 miles continuously in 
one year. 
Not much oil is required to lubricate the little machine on 
its 3,500-mile run. It takes only one-tenth of a drop of oil 
to oil the entire machinery of a year’s service. 
It may be news to many that the watch of the railroad 
man is as necessary in modern railroading as the air-brake. 
Without accurate timekeeping there would probably be 
more accidents than if there were no air-brakes. The train- 
despatcher starts a train at a certain time; he halts it at 
certain stations at certain times; he sidetracks it for a period 
of varying length; the watch of the conductor on the side- 
tracked train must agree with the watch of the conductor 
on the express to which he had to give way; each station- 
master along the road checks the time of every train that 
stops or flies past. 
On one great line about 5,000 watches, worth on an 
average $25 apiece (a low estimate), are used. If we 
take into consideration the number of watches that are used 
on other roads throughout the country, it is evident that 
the value must run up into hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
In order that the watch may be kept up to a regular 
standard, it must be inspected regularly. ‘There is not only 
a general time inspector on most railroads, but a staff of 
local inspectors who are placed along the road at convenient 
points, and to whom the men may resort when they wish to 
compare their time with the standard time at that place. 
Once every two weeks the railroad man submits his watch 
to such an inspector (usually a jeweler or watchmaker by 
profession). ‘The inspector gives his expert opinion on the 
condition of the timepiece. If it needs cleaning, he says so 
and does it; if it is fast or slow, he regulates it, and not until 
it is running with sufficient accuracy is it allowed to escape 
from his care. A watch’s record is kept as if it were a 
thief. So far as repairing goes, the railroad man is under 
no compulsion. He need not hand over his watch to any 
particular watchmaker, or inspector, for repair, but he can 
give it to any watchmaker in whom he has confidence. It 
must, however, be submitted to the inspector before it can 
be used in actual service. That no favoritism is shown in 
the matter of watches is evident in the fact that no less than 
eight different manufacturers supply railroad watches. 
