28 
Ofye Slower (Brower 
March, 1918 
MRS. AUSTIN’S TALKS 
= [ Written expressly for The Flower Grower. ] 
A Birdman and His Birds. 
Y es, he is a birdman, 
but not a German 
bomb-dropper, and not 
an American soarer above 
the clouds qualifying for 
aerial battles “over there.” 
His son has gone to “look 
after” the Kaiser, and he is 
doing his bit here at;home 
in numerous ways and in- 
cidentally proving through his hobby 
— the study of birds — that they are 
also accomplishing a part by helping 
to conserve food. For years he has 
furnished homes and winter food for 
his pets and they have repaid him by 
summer feasting on destructive insects 
and their larvae that would have ruined 
his vegetables and fruit. He tells us that 
in early winter the birds seemed in- 
stinctively aware of the rigorous winter 
weather to come and many migrated 
four days before the first severe cold 
snap, and not for years has he had so 
few with him during the winter sea- 
son. 
His feeding house, somewhat crude 
but very serviceable, measures 14 in. 
wide by 24 in. length and is hung on a 
wire stretched from the house to a 
tree, a distance of about 30 feet and 
can be easily drawn to the porch to be 
replenished. It is not an uncommon 
sight to see half a dozen Chickadees sit 
in a row on the lower part and have a 
trolley ride in. They seem to enjoy it 
and twitter happily. When the weather 
is extremely cold the birds gather fear- 
lessly in the porch and feed on the shelf 
seen there. Chickadees, Nuthatch, 
Tufted Titmouse and Woodpeckers 
have been with him even through the 
coldest weather and recently reinforced 
by Cardinals, various Woodpeckers, 
Robins and Bluejays. The “Birdman” 
keeps his food table well stocked with 
watermelon, pumpkin, muskmelon, 
squash and in fact almost any kind of 
seed, and although they eat of them 
all, it is plain to be seen that they have 
their individual preferences. The Tit- 
mouse and Nuthatch will select seed 
of pumpkin or squash, sunflower and 
nutmeats. The brilliant Cardinal 
chooses kaffir corn while the Wood- 
pecker will make a meal of suet and 
nutmeats. Right here let me add that 
such food should be supplemented by 
the fruits from berried shrubs and 
when planting shrubs for ornamental 
purposes give the birds a thought and 
select some of the berried ones which 
are also very ornamental. 
Many and various are the nests made 
for his birds, but the short log with 
bark left on, fashioned for different 
needs, seems to be a favorite. The 
forests have been cut away and every 
hole in “The Old Apple Tree” filled 
with cement so that Mr. Flicker, Blue- 
bird, Wren or Woodpecker have no 
place to nest. More and more are we 
learning the value of birds to save our 
crops, but to keep them we must fur- 
nish them summer nesting 
places. If you have winter 
birds you will surely have 
summer birds. Many are 
the lessons to be learned 
from them. Was it from 
the demure Quail which ap- 
pears and disappears at 
ones very feet that the great 
war artists learned the art 
of camouflage? The won- 
derful heavier-than-air ma- 
chine ascends into the heavens in 
perfect imitation of the American 
Eagle. And what about the scolding 
house-wife who, for some trifling rea- 
son refuses to allow her husband to 
enter her spic and span kitchen ? 
Surely she patterned after Mrs. Wren 
who meets her liege lord and master at 
the door, accepts his hard earned family 
provision, a regular stream of green 
worms, without allowing him to enter. 
Our Birdman is also fond of animals 
and dates his interest in them to his 
boyhood days when he studied their 
Mr. C. Z. Loomis, 
The Birdman referred to in Mrs. Austin’s 
article. Note the traveling bird feeding house. 
ways and learned their habits while 
hunting. He learned to love them and 
there are few kinds in this vicinity 
that he has not, at some time, had for 
pets. One of the hardest to tame was 
the — now nearly extinct — flying squir- 
rel, a blackeyed beauty whose wings(?) 
of expansive skin on each side extend- 
ing from the tip of the front to the 
hind foot, give him the appearance of 
wearing a blanket-like parachute as he 
gracefully sails in long leaps from tree 
to tree, perhaps resting on the dead 
one that is his favorite home, where he 
Hooverizes on Wild Potato. 
In reminiscent remembrance of boy- 
hood tramps through the woods with 
his father, a white-haired Deacon of 
the good old strict type, he recalled a 
legend of the early times, which runs 
that: When God made a beautiful tree, 
plant or shrub, the Devil tried to imi- 
tate him and failed. As an example, 
God made the grand old Whitewood 
and the Devil made the Pepperidge, 
useless for either lumber or wood as it 
cannot be split. God made the beau- 
tiful Blue Beech and its imitation is the 
Devil’s Beech, a knurly, twisted scrub 
of a tree, practically worthless. The 
graceful clinging Five-leaved Ivy has 
its imitation in the Poison Ivy, and if 
you poison easily you are sure to think 
His Majesty, Mephistopheles, had a 
hand in originating it. The beautiful 
Elderberry also has its imitation in the 
still more beautiful Poison Alder with 
its white flowers and highly colored 
foliage but worthless berries. The 
Sumac has the Poison Sumac. There 
are also many other imitations or simi- 
larities. 
Truly Providence has given us a 
a goodly heritage in the beautiful plant 
and animal life of field and forest. 
Mrs. A. H. Austin. 
A Suggestion for Advertisers. 
To the Editor 
When your magazine arrives, I usu- 
ally look through the advertisements 
first, and I find on the average that I 
learn as much from them as I do from 
the rest of the contents. However, 
for the possible benefit of advertisers 
and to learn what other readers think, 
I wish to tell how different classes of 
advertisements impress me : 
While going through the February 
number I first selected those which 
made at least some quotation, even if 
it were one variety only. Those which 
merely said, “ Catalogue mailed on re- 
quest,” or briefly stated that So-and-So 
were growers of Gladioli did not re- 
ceive any consideration. Those which 
called me back again and again were 
those which gave a more or less exten- 
sive list of varieties with quotations. 
Evidently the dollar sign is what at- 
tracts the eye. “ Where can I get the 
most for my money ?” 
An illustration of flowers has almost 
no value to me. If it is some mechani- 
cal contrivance, that is different, but a 
half-tone can give no idea of the ap- 
pearance of the Gladiolus. The best 
illustration is bloom from some neigh- 
bor’s garden. 
R. E. Boomhower. 
Note by the Editor - 
Mr. Boomhower’s suggestions are valuable 
to those preparing copy for advertisements. 
We believe strongly in quoting prices and 
concentrating on something definite rather 
than having it in general terms. We do not, 
however, agree with the suggestion that 
illustration has little value. The illustra- 
tion, while it cannot give the coloring of the 
flower, yet it will show the form and habit 
of growth and with a good color descrip- 
tion the experienced grower can form a very 
fair idea of the appearance of the flower. 
Those who prognosticate an early 
spring may be mistaken. There is 
more frost in the ground this winter 
than there has been before in years. 
Surely spring will not be with us until 
the frost is all out of the ground. 
