The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1896-10-31
70 ATTRACT WILD BIRDS.
If You Want Them About the Horse
Plant n White Mulberry tree.

If You Want Them About the Horse
Plant n White Mulberry tree.
IF you live In a suburban town ana
want TO encourage villa birds to visit
and live about your house" the observ
ant Jerseymnn says. you cannot make
advances to them In better way than
by planting white mulberry tree AMI
abolishing eats.
THE first thing to attend to Is TO ger
rid OF all the cats which come about
your grounds. You can do this while
your mulberry tree is growing. but
don't take too long about Il, for thu
white mulberry is one OF the quickest
growing trees that | know OF. Orig
nnlly II came from China. and was
brought to this part OF the country
about fifty years ago. when there wa
n craze for raising silkworms. Since
thar time II has been much neglected
nut there are many places like my own
part OF the country upon the Shrews
bury river where It las found con
genial soil and climate and now grows
wild
II have one white mulberry tree
Five years ago II was only about six
feet tall, with trunk not bigger than
a broomstick. To-day 1t is thirty feet
tail, and Its handsome globular head
has diameter OF about twenty-five
feet 1t is n pretty tree. with its shiny
leaves and its close foliage. and makes
a shelter which the birds love; but it IS
when the fruit ripens that the tree be-
comes the strongest drawing attrac
tlon for them. The fruit is about three
quarters Of an inch long and mawkish
ly sweet to our human taste but there
seems to be hardly one OF our small
native birds that does not love 1t. Thy
fruit began to ripen about June l. :.
this year, and ever since then 4 ~
hasn't been minute OF the dag $len
there wasn't at least one bird 'Dthe
tree. TO one who iz.1tot conversanl
with the great vari1ty Of our native
birds 1t is revel lon to watch them
come after taste of the sweet fruit
There are catbirds and robins, spar
rows OF more kinds than you have fin
gers and toes, warblers and vereos.
and even hummingbirds. The fruit
Will last until about July 10 or 10
THE white mulberry furnishes an
other source of delight to the birds.
which is not so much matter OF pleas
ure to its owner. This Is because its
leaves are exceedingly toothsome 20
some OF the caterpillars. and particu.
larry TO the tent caterpillar The elder.
the mulberry, and the apple tree are
favorltes OF this worm. | have sonic
colonies OF caterpillars on my mulberry
tree, but, thanks to the same birds
which eat the fruit, the worms are also
soon eaten, and not single colony OF
the worms has so far got beyond the
twig 1t originated upon before It's mem
bers were snapped up as choice NOR
sells by the colony of birds"
and do you have English sparrowsy'
Certainly; large flock of them.
They live in the wistaria vines and
nest under the caves Of the barn"
"And do they not drive away the
ether birds?"
w. iVA W. btiitNt tiit iutl HdNt
uone so anywhere. 1t is true that there
are now many places where none~of
cur native birds Is left. and that IN
these same places the English sparrows
abound, and this has given rise to n be
lief that the other birds have been
driven away by them; but ! have never
seen the native birds worsted by them.
On my little place they all exist to-
gether and in harmony. The robins
are more quarrelsome than the English
sparrows. l believe that II careful OBJ
servations were made. 1t would be
found that where the native birds have
disappeared II was the result of other
causes, and that the English sparrows
remained simply because they do not
mind things which would drive all the
wild birds far Off People and eats and
lack of shade and fruit are potent rea.
sons for the departure of the wild birds
cats especially. New York sun