Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1899-09-21
ARE DISREpUTABLE BIRDS.
THEY SOON BECOME FOND OF
APPLE BRANDY.
Peculiar Eject of the sun on the
Frozen Apples and How the
Partridges Profited

Ralph Hart OF Holden, Me-, believes
that the modern partridge. as devel-
oped by civilization, is depraved and
utterly abandoned creature, insult
able for the tables Of respectable fam
lies and wholly unfit TO associate
with other birds that have any self
respect, says the Philadelphia Inquir-
er. Mr.. Hart has large orchard,
mostly in natural fruit Last fall he
ground and pressed his apples until
new cider went down to less than 81
barrel, after which the remaining fruit
some 800 or 400 bushels-was left 10
hang on the trees, where il was sam
pied by cartridges, squirrels. pine gros-
beaks and such other creatures as
liked sour frozen apples rs steady
article of diet The cartridges didn't
seem To care much for the apples, but
We're fond OF the seeds, and, as they
had to pick through an inch or more
of finty. frozen fruit To get at these,
Mr.. Hart believed they paid well for
their provehder. March was very
warm month In eastern Maine. I'm
der the hot rays Of the sun the frozen
apples thawed out and eXuded juices
that were sweet and singing to the
taste. In IA month the frozen cider be
gan to ferment and every apple had n
bunch of froth in the little hollow
which holds the stem. The cartridges
were whirring about the orchard from
sun-up until dark growing fat upon
the nut-brown seeds. which could he
shelled out easily. Along in April Mr..
Hart noticed that the birds did not
show themselves in that orchard at
all, and waded down through the deep
snow to learn If they had eaten UP all
the apples that remained on the trees.
He found plenty of apples on the
limbs and under the trees he picked
up four plump cartridges that were
suffering from some form of paralysis
They couldn't walk or fly, but when
he took them up and carried them
home they tluttered all the way and
rolled their eyes in way that indica-
ted they were suffering intensely He
threw them upon the granary floor
and when he opened the door next
morning all four of them were beating
their heads against the window trying
10 get out. When liberated they flew
away to the woods as if nothing unus-
ual had happened.
The following afternoon Mr.. Hart
found three more cartridges suffering
from the same malady and placed
them in the granary to recover, tying
a bit of red flannel to their wings in
order to identify them the next morn
ing, and six hours later found five
partridges laid out on the snow under
his apple trees, and three of them had
red flannel attached to their wings.
He kept up the experiment for a week,
finding from three to six partridgeS
every day. Then he did some tall
thinking and came to the conclusion
that the birds had made themselves
drunk on apple brandy that had been
manufactured from frozen sour APP
pies by liberal application of sun
light. Mr.. Hart, being rigid prohibi-
ZIONIST, has made a VOW that he will
never again leave apples on his trees
over winter He hopes that by re-
moving the temptation the misguided
cartridges may see the error into
which they have fallen and resolve TO
lead better lives in the future