The Garden Magazine, September, 1920 
SI 
BIRDS IN THE GARDEN 
T HERE are people who boast about their 
success in coaxing birds into their gardens 
and others who discuss the best means of driving 
the birds away. Naturally it depends some- 
thing upon the garden itself — and upon the birds. 
While the feathered visitors add much to the joys 
of a quiet retreat given over to ornamental 
shrubs and blooming plants, they often prove 
a nuisance in the vegetable garden as well as in 
the fruit garden, this being true 'specially of 
The empty cobs on these Corn-stalks bear 
mute witness to the highly developed 
avian taste for this cream-and-nectar com- 
bination which we want for ourselves! 
robins, sparrows, and blackbirds. Crows might 
perhaps be included, except that they seldom 
invade the small garden of the amateur. Spar- 
rows are especially persistent in destroying 
Peas. Many gardens are seen decorated with 
strings from which wave strips of white cloth. 
This device, however, is only partially efficient. 
Oftentimes the sparrows pay little attention to 
the waving rags. A more satisfactory plan is to 
dust the young plants with powdered tobacco, but 
another device and one which is recommended 
as being remarkably satisfactory has been sug- 
gested by a naturalist who has found that birds 
have a curious dislike for crimson color. He says 
that it is only necessary to fasten a length of 
crimson worsted to two stakes along the rows 
in order to keep the birds at a distance. Is 
it so? [Blue is effective sometimes. Ed.] 
It is a pity that some easy way cannot also be 
originated for dealing with the blackbirds which 
at times become a very serious pest. The ac- 
companying illustration will show how they 
ruined my Sweet Corn. My neighbors suffered 
in the same way, too. The birds came in im- 
mense flocks and what they did to that Corn was 
a-plenty. They did it in short order, too, and 
then went on their way, doubtless looking for new 
fields to devour. I haven’t found any way to 
save the Corn from the blackbirds except to keep a 
0 Continued on page 54) 
Gives Top-Notch Results 
This Ten-Ten Catalogue Tells How 
Strange, isn’t it, how long it took 
so many of us to wake up to the 
decided advantages in planting lots 
of things in the Fall. 
Some old Granny a few thousand 
years ago must have said; “there is 
no time for planting like the 
Springtime”; and seemingly that 
settled it for all time. 
But when you see your neighbors’ 
Fall-planted Flardy Flowers mak- 
ing kangaroo jumps ahead of your 
Spring planted ones, you sort of 
do some thinking. 
When you see another neighbor’s 
Fall-planted Shrubs filled with 
Spring blooms, while yours that 
came from the same place, have 
only a sprinkling — you ask your- 
self wTiy you, too, didn’t plant in 
the Fall? 
When along in January, you see 
Fall planted Evergreens giving col- 
or and relief to the dreariness of 
some lawm, you wonder why you 
didn’t do likewise, and have those 
additional months of satisfaction 
at no additional cost. 
But back of, and in front of, the 
whole thing is another thing of no 
little importance, and that is: In 
the Spring, everybody is bus}' gar- 
dening and planting. Help is next 
to impossible to get. 
In the Fall, it is different. Help 
is easier to find, even in these times 
of help shortage. 
But your first and most important 
help is the Ten-Ten Fall Planting 
Book. 
It is as much of a departure from 
other catalogues, as Fall Planting 
used to be. 
Its Ten-Ten Plan makes ordering 
simplicity itself. 
uliuS* ‘RgeKry Ccr 
Ai The Si ? m of The Tree 
Box IO, Rutherford N.J. 
HOSEA WATERER 
Highest Quality Bulbs 
HYACINTHS, TULIPS, NARCISSUS, WATERER’S 
SPECIAL EVERGREEN LAWN GRASS SEED 
Seedsman and Bulb Importer 
107-109 S. Seventh St. Philadelphia, Pa. 
Catalogue on request 
