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HOT AIR FOR WARM BOUQUETS 
When it seems as though winter will never end, nothing is more encouraging than 
a branch of forced spring blossoms, All one needs is advice and possession of some 
suitable plants. However, advice can lead to confusion ~ simply snip the branches; 
cut them at a slant; pound the ends; then put the branches in warm water and place 
them in the light; or place them in the dark, ete, Thus goes the advice and it can 
be confusing. 
Tiring of the varied advice and wanting results, on February 1, 8, 15, 22 and 
on March 1 and 8 of last year, we gathered branches from pear, plum, cherry and 
crab apple trees in our yard, On each gathering date, we pounded the ends of half 
ef the twigs. Of these, half were placed in a lighted window, and the other half 
in warm water in the dark. The same procedure was followed with the non-pounded 
branches, The temperature hovered around 65 degrees. In all cases, the first green 
leaves appeared on the fourteenth day, and blossems on the twenty-first and twenty- 
second days. Pounding, light, and dark made no difference as to when the buds 
opened, 
During the middle of February of the same year, we had the opportunity to prune 
forsythia bushes for our neighbors. We offered them half the cuttings, while taking 
half for ourselves. They put theirs inte the darkest corner of their living room 
while we put ours into a sunny seuth window in a room where the temperature never 
rose above 60 degrees, A week and one-half later our neighber's buds opened and 
eurs showed no signs of change. Moving them to a warmer room, where the temperature 
never fell below 68 degrees, ours, too, were green within a week and showing hints 
of gold shortly after. 
This year we tried a new approach. On February 2, we gathered a few stems from 
a crab apple tree, left them unpounded, and placed them within two feet of a heat 
register. Being blasted by hot air for close to sixteen hours a day, bright green 
; leaves covered the branches within seven days. All we did was periodically add 
yi water to the jars in which they stood, Within twelve days a Valentine's Day 
| bouquet warmed our hearts}! -- Robert L. and Sonia Vogl, Oregon, Ill, — 
: WASH 
CORRECTION: In the last Newsletter, we stated that commemorative stamps, 
to be sent to the Florida Audubon Society, Drawer 7, Maitland, Florida, 
should be "peeled off." This is not the accepted way. Carefully cut the 
stamp from the envelope, leaving a margin of envelope around the stamp. 
Helpers in Florida will then soak off stamps in water. (Thanks to two 
lh alert philatelists, --Editor.) 
JAHRE 
IAS AFFILIATE broke into The New Yorker magazine with this release: 
"PRINCETON -- Bureau Valley Auduben Club members reported a total of 3,428 birds 
were seen in the annual Christmas Bird Count Thursday night at the dinner at the 
Northern Restaurant, --La Salle (I11l.) Daily News-Tribune." Quipped The New Yorker: 
"Must have been a mighty restless affair." | 
(Den't fret, Bureau Valley members, not every IAS group makes a big time magazine. 
Besides, we read about some watchers out East, in the Greater Philadelphia and 
southern New Jersey area, that "turned up 632 species and more than 101,000 indivi- 
dual birds" -—-numbers repeated identically in headline and in text. This was on 
page ll of The Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), Jan. 17, 1967. Just try and beat 
that count] -—-Editor. 
