The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-28
SECRET OF B1RDsEyE MAPLE.
An Old Maine WOodsman Discovers
Work for His Tame WoOdpeckers.

An Old Maine WOodsman Discovers
Work for His Tame Woodpeckers.
After having spent more than sixty
years and more than $4,000 in hunting
bears and studying the ways of wild
creatures, .Greenleaf Davis, of Patten,
Me-, has begun to raise tame woodpeckers
with the purpose of using them to
convert ordinary rock naples into the
rare and costly wood known as birdseye
maple. Mr.. Davis is more than eighty.
Sixty years ago he Inherited a mill prop
erty valued at $4,000 which he soon sold,
and then he went to the woods under
the side of Mount Katahdin. Here he
built a log camp and spent much of his
time on the trail of bears and Ind an
devils, of which he has killed more than
any other man in Maine
1t has been Mr.. Davis belief that no
creature should be kept in captivity
more than a month. If the creatures
he caught chose to remain with him
after that period they were welcome
to such fare as he could afford to give.
If they wanted to go, the doors were open.
In this way he has tanned squirrels,
muskrats, and woodchucks until they
and their offsprings nearly overran his
camp. His great success has been won
with WoodpeckerS, of which he now has
nearly one hundred They are of the
hairy and doWny species in about equal
numbers, but more than both of these
in number and esteem are the red-headed
sapsuckers, which pick round holes in
the bark of the trees, making them look
like the bottom Of an old-styled colander
AS these woodpeckers did not migrat
Mr.. Davis had company the year round
lie put up boxes for them to occupy as
MONIES, and In few years the ample
grove back of his camp was filled with
birds. The yellow hammer is the only
species of the woodpecker family that
will live without insect food, and after
the sapsuckers grew very numerous Mr.
Davis had much trouble to feed them He
dug up the ant hills and sifted the sand
out to get the insects for his birds, but
IN spite OF his labors, the rod-headed
Woocpeckers made sad havoc in his sap
orchard, digging holes in his best naples
and impairing the flow of sap, from which
much of his living was derived
1t was impossible to kill the birds be-
cause of the company they afforded. and
1t was equally impossible to live without
tho income from the sap orchard. The
old man spent weeks in his grove, watch
ing the result of the wounds which the
birls inflicted on the bark. AS a scar
healed he noticed that there was a bright
red spot left on the wood directly be-
low the wound. If the tree was badly
marked the red spots were moro nuner-
N'No IAle1A lIiSy- were Oh trees WHICH naQ
suffered less, while on trees which the
woodpcekers had not visited there were
no traces of red.
About this time it occurred to him that
as the beautiful markings of birdseye
maple were due to the red spots in the
wood, and as nobody had ever been able
to account for them, it was possible that
the variety of maple known as birdseye
might owe it's origin to the work OF the
woodpeckers. If so, he had made a
discovery that had baffied botanists for
years. FTe had also learned how to
make his colonly of woedpeckers self
supporting.
By mixing the ants, which he sits
from the sand, with paste formed from
elm bark boiled down to a thick batter,
he can smear the trunks of thrifty ma
pies with such food as the wocdpeckers
require, and while they are getting a.
meal from the bark, their bills are Dor.
ing new holes In the trees that shall
transform an ordinary maple wood,
worth no more than $12 thousand feet,
into birdseye maple that sells anywhere
for $50 and $50 thousand, and the deal
ers cannot get all they want at those
prices.