The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-08-12
woODPECKERs MAKE B1RDsEYE NAPLES

''When a man has spent eight
years and more than SIS, 900 in study
ing the ways of wild things" said
Greenleaf Davis, it would seem as il
he should know something about the
nature of animals and birds, but am
obliged to own that / am more ignor
ant today than / was when my father
came here from Massachusetts, and
built sawmill in 1924, when I was 9
years old. He left all his property to
me, including miles of timber lands
and money in bank, and have spent
all of it except this spot where my
camp stands.
"What have I accomplished? ? That
depends very much upon how you
look at it. The way the world sees
things, my life has been wasted. In
stead of being rich I am very poor so
Door that the town keeps me in the
almshouse free of cost through the
cod weather. / have almost assured
myself of very many facts, though I
am not absolutely certain concerning
any except two.
"Tle first is that every woodpecker
that diys hole in a tree for a nest
chooseSthe east side. / have, spent
more than half century studying
woodpecxers. Within half mile of
my campare 6I2 woodpecker nests.
I have the largest collection of wood
peckers inthe world, though none of
them is tame or more than half do
mesticated. / have spent as much as
$3.50 in a year buying meat to feed
the woodpecters. Nobody living or
dead has studied the woodpeckers SO
much as l have, but the sum of my
knowledge is very small.
II know that these birds insist on
having the holes that enter their nests
face the east, because / have waited
until the eggs were laid in the holes
in posts had put out and then turned
the posts about. l have done this
when the birds were away, and never
has any bird continued to incubate
her young when the hole was changed
from due east. I think the wood
peckers choose an eastern aspect for
the reason that they can know when
the sun is up. They are all early
risers, and having no alarm clock they
make sun dials of their nests.
"My second discovery is of some
commercial use. For hundreds of
years lumbermen and cabinetmakers
have been studying to learn what
causes maple wood to assume the mot
tied and spotted form known as bird
eye.' In a hundred rock maple trees
perhaps one is a birdseye. Nobody
can pick the specific tree out by in
specting the bark or the manner Of
growth. Yon may have to chop two
hundred trees before you find one, but
it is worth the sacrifice.
"Fact is, the woodpeckers make
all the birdseye maple there is in the
world. In flying about the woods
they come to rock maple tree that
yields very sweet sap in the season
when sap is running. Most birds
like sweets-woodpeckers are very
fond of sugar. Having found tree
yielding large per cent. of sugar the
birds peck holes in the trunk and then
stand against the bark and drink the
con &C If oozeS ont
"After the sap has ceased to flow
and the trees have leaved out new
wood and bark form in those small
holes. The pecking and sap gather
ing goes on for years until the tree,
having given up so much sap to the
birds, begins to furnish fluid contain
ing less sugar. In ten or twelve years
after the birds quit a tree the holes
are all grown up. and nobody can pick
out the big birdseyes from other trees
that the woodpeckers did not visit.
"More than fifty years ago l start
ed in to induce the woodpeckers 70
help me make birdseye naples. This
spring 1 had more than one thousand
birds in my employ for two months.
On the sidehill overlooking my camp
are about three hundred birdseye
naples of my own make. know
every one of them though nobody else
can guess at the valuable trees. If I
live few years longer am going to
begin cutting, after which I shall
have more money than can spend.
If l die have left record of every
tree, so that the Audubon Society can
market the wood and devote the
money to giving protection to wood