The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-30
PREPARATION FOR SPRING.

It seems early for out-of-door garden ing, but Nature is forever preparing for the seasons to come. No human gardener perhaps would be found sow ing his seed when the thermometer stood at fifteen below zero, and when the snow lay three feet deep upon the ground, yet under these conditions Ma ture is sowing myriads Of seeds of the berry-bearing shrubs and ereepers. She employs, as her sewers, the grouse, the pine grosbeaks. the redpolls and many other birds, which at this season live chiefly on the pulp of the berries, and afterwards distribute the undigested seeds through the forest, thus securing a perpetuation of the shrub whose ber- ries they eat, and providing winter food for future generations of grouse and pine grosbeaks and redpolls.
 If you walk across the swampS at this season. and look down where the ice in thin and clear, you will not see "a lifeless brown mass of decaying veg citation, but a living army of plants looking upward hopefully at the light above them and waiting, perhaps im- patiently, for "Forwardl Marchi" upon wavering Winter.
 Nor is it necessary to visit the swamps to be aware of the preparations for Spring. Look at the tree-tops and note that swelling buds give the branch es a rosy hue; notice that the willows are turning a golden yellow, and that many of the shrubs are taking on pur- pie tinge. In sheltered places the pus- sy willows are showing their silky, silvery paws, and rarely we may find in some very well protected spot an odd spring flower in bloom. In fact, amongst all the plants of forest and swamp. there is whisper not too loud, but quite audible, that the spring is on the way.
 Many Of the animals, too. are aware of the approach of winters end. and l they show it. The skunk, who some six weeks ago. retired to his burrow well lined with fat, and who has snoozed through the time of bitter weather and deep snow, now comes out every night, and we may find his footprints after every light snowfall. They are the foot
 prints of a plodder (for a skunk rarely goes out for a walk if he can help it), and extend in double line. The im-
 pressions of the feet are not arranged
 in pairs. but alternately right and left.
 and show the marks os the prominent
 claws very plainly. The woodchucks
 will soon be turning over in their sleep, and after we have had a warm day or two we may get glimpse of a hoary
 head poked inquiringly from the mouth
 of some sheltered burrow. But the old fellow will surely go back and take an-
 other nap; foraging will not be quite to | his liking until March at least. The lchipmunks will be getting active, too, for they never sleep so sound as the
 woodehucks do, and it will not be long
 before we hear the startled chip" from
 some venturesome little hackhee, dart ling back to his burrow, as we pass by through the woods. And the big bear. lean and hungry, will be leaving her
 cen before long, to seek food for herself land her cubs, and woe to the lesser creature which. crosses her path. for she is not a vegetarian at this season.
 The gray squirrels. which have been tseen only off and on during the harder lpart of the winter, will soon be busy Eevery day, raking up the leaves for nuts hidden long ago. or nibbling the tender buds of the trees. And before the cold
 weather has really gone. they will be caring for their little families in Brown lleafy nests in the tops of the taller ltrees.
 | As yet we have had no sign from that vigorous little herald of spring the Ipeeping frog, but we know, as we look ldown through the thin ice at the water
 plants, that he is down there with them, land that even before them he will come to the surface and tune his shrill bag pipe. And the country folk will laugh
 at him for venturing to come up before
 the frost has gone, and will say to him,
 You'll have to take look through
 the windows yet, my boy" How few
 even among the country people, seem to
 know this tiny frog, or, after having seen him, will believe that it is he who
 makes the loud piping they hear in the lsWamps. To be sure, on this point, all Ione has to do is to go down to the Imarsh when the frogs are peeping and after wading into the water stand per fectly still. Your approach will have
 been a signal for all musicians to cease
 but after a time first one and then an
 other will start their pipes. Single out lone particular voice, and, ever so gent