PARK AND CEMETERY 
give footing to the birds. After 3'ears 
of patient study the Count developed 
an exact imitation of this hole. At 
first it was made by hand in a labori- 
ous and tedious manner, but the boxes 
were so successful that a practical 
manufacturer was interested, and 
elaborate machinery was devised to 
manufacture the boxes in quantity. 
There are now three factories pro- 
ducing them and another is soon to 
be started. So great is the demand 
that a number of spurious imitations 
are being put on the market, and the 
manufacturers of the original boxes 
have been obliged to trade mark them 
to protect the public and the birds, 
for if the smallest detail is not ac- 
cording to nature the bird tenants 
will not occupj’- them. 
Five other kinds of nesting boxes 
are also manufactured, each adapted 
to the requirements of some species 
of bird. 
The nesting box idea has so im- 
pressed the entire nation that the 
German government has ordered the 
old trees to be left standing in the 
crown forests to provide natural 
nesting places. The Grand Duchy of 
Hesse installed 9,300 nesting boxes in 
the government forests, and the first 
year eighty per cent of them were in- 
habited. The next year not a one was 
vacant. A factory for the manufac- 
ture of nesting boxes has been estab- 
lished with government aid in Hun- 
gar3q and is now supplying the boxes 
to the state forest of five million 
acres. 
Birds that nest in the open include 
our best songsters and insect eaters. 
They make their nests in bushes, trees, 
on banks among the reeds and in 
holes. The mania for destroying 
thickets, hedges, fences, cutting out 
undergrowth, dividing fields, drying 
up swamps and ponds and altering 
river beds is fast rendering them 
homeless. 
At the Seebach e.xperiment station 
extensive shrubbery plantings have 
been made solely for bird nesting 
places. The choice of shrubs is im- 
portant. Those which bear pruning 
and branch out after being cut, which 
keep away vermin b3^ their thorns, 
and those which thrive well in shad3' 
places are especial^^ favored b3’ the 
birds. Particularly useful are the 
following: White thorn (Crataegus 
oxycantha), hornbeam (Carpinus betu- 
lus), common beach (Fagus silvatica), 
dog rose (Rosa canina), wild goose- 
berry (Ribes grossularia), tall Ameri- 
can gooseberry (Ribes grossularia ar- 
boreum), a species of wild currant 
(Ribes purnilum), privet (Ligustrum 
vulgare), two varieties of Lonicera 
(yylosteum and tatarica), the red 
cedar and pollarded firs. 
The ground for one of these shel- 
ter hedges is thoroughly prepared and 
planted with w'hite thorn and beech, 
or hornbeam, and surrounded by a 
hedge of dog roses. A few tall trees 
that do not give too much shade, pre- 
ferabh' the mountain ash or oak, are 
also included. Then the groups of 
the other bushes mentioned are 
planted. In the third or fourth year 
all except the plants joined in groups 
and the trees are cut to the ground 
in order that the3^ may grow^ up as 
spreading bushes. During the follow- 
ing 3"ears the copse develops to an im- 
penetrable thicket. In a few years it 
is again cut down and a few isolated 
“stock bushes” left at intervals of five 
or six yards. These are pruned close 
above the dormant eyes so that the 
new grow’th -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. The hedge grows 
up between these bushes. In a few 
years’ there will be little noticeable 
difference between the hedge and the 
stock bushes, and the whole will form 
a compact thicket. One of these 
shelter woods was found to have an 
average of one nest every' 3'ard and 
a half. 
After eleven years of study and ex- 
periment with the feeding problem. 
Count von Berlepsch developed three 
practical feeding devices, the “food 
tree,” the “food house” and the “food 
bell.” 
25 6 
The food tree is made simph- by 
sprinkling a carefully prepared mix- 
ture over the branches of one of the 
coniferous trees; this is man’s imita- 
tion of a tree covered with insects’ 
eggs or larvae. The mixture best for 
this purpose the Baron found to .be a 
compound of meat and white bread, 
dried and ground, hemp, crushed 
hemp, maw, poppy flour, white millet, 
oats, dried elder berries, sunflower 
seeds and ants' eggs. To this is added 
about one and a half times as much 
fat, beef or mutton suet. The mix- 
ture is heated, well stirred and poured 
boiling hot on the branches of the 
tree. It is not necessar3' to follow 
this recipe exactl3', but the chief part 
of the mi-xture must consist of hemp, 
whole or crushed. 
A still simpler winter dining room 
for the birds is the food house, which 
has been found the most natural and 
successful way' of winter feeding. It 
consists essentially of a roof placed 
on four corner posts, with two tables 
beneath it on a center post. The 
lower and smaller one is merely an in- 
troductory tea-table to attract the 
birds and induce them to find the up- 
per one, which contains most of the 
food. Immediately below the roof a 
strip of glass runs from post to post, 
its lower edge reaching just below 
the upper food table. This protects 
the food from the weather without 
shutting off any light from the table. 
The table may be spread with any 
kind of bird food or seeds, of which 
hemp is always the most acceptable. 
Blackbirds, song thrushes, finches, tits, 
wrens, and golden crested wrens are 
( Continued on p X/l 
"G 
•ilr- 
GROTVING A GERMAX "NESTING HEDGE.” 
Bushes at Right Have Had First Cutting Back; at the Left, the Second. 
