Evening star., 1936-03-23
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

What are all these tiny green plants,
coming up so luxuriantly beneath the
bird feeders?
Why, they are millet, and corn, and
rape, and wheat, and oats. and sunf1ower,
and Canadian peas, and all the other
grains and seeds used in wild bird mix
lures.
They are visible argument for placing
such feeding stations in borders, or near
driveways, where the overflow Of grain
will not ruin the lawn.
They constitute, too, one Of the best
reasons for ending the feeding season at
least by the last Of March.
Some care and attention must be given
to these little plants, else they will
thrive out of place and be very much in
the way.
The attention, of course, will consist Of
uprooting them pretty soon.
they are. Whether many of them will
arise in the grass remains to be seen, but
we rather suspect they will.
y X *x
Just how much of the several hundred
pounds Of wild bird food used since last
Thanksgiving has been wasted is scarcely
| to be determined.
The birds waste much of it, but the
squirrels great deal more.
No doubt many grains are blown
| around, and some of them dropped by
the birds in flying away to trees with a
choice morsel
We sampled the inner portion of a
sunflower seed, the other day, and found
| it very tasty, with somewhat nutty
flavor, mingled with just trace Of
| weedy flavor. No wonder the cardinals
| love them.
We have no doubt that If this inner
portion of sunflower seeds was crushed
| beneath a roller and used as flour, it
would make very good eating in cakes
or cookies, biscuits or pancakes.
y X x
1t is practically impossible to devise
any sort Of automatic bird feeding de-
vice which will prevent the Songsters
| from scattering some of the food on the
earth.
| In fact, this would not be desirable, for
the birds love to eat from the ground,
and no doubt purpoSely see to it that
some of the food gets there. Only a
comparatively few feeders can occupy
the feeding trays at the same time,
whereas scores of them can eat from the
earth, as the ones aloft from time to
time scatter choice seeds and grains.
| The greatest "WaSters," in this respect,
| are the English sparrows.
| These little fellows have technique
| Of their own in dipping their bills into
the flow of seed from the hopper.
They do this with quick, jerking mo-
ton, drawing the bill sideways.
| This literally knocks hundreds of seeds
out of the tray, or platform.
| Every time a sparrow dips in his bill
for one seed, he must throw half dozen
to the ground, to be gobbled up by its
| mates below.
Hence the "waste" is not as great as
| it seems, by any means, but unqueStion-
ably over a period of three or four
months many of the smaller items escape
the bills of the hungry.
| 1t is these which, with Natures power,
are coming into the light of day now by
| the dozens.
| How fresh they seem, along with the
tulip leaves. (And those red shoots OF
the peonieS, which, we are glad to say,
at last have come into the light0
| How green they are, these specimens
| Of the great grain crops. BuckWheat is
there, and some others we do not know.
They are out of place in flower bor-
| der and lawn, but there are reminders
| Of great agricultural operations, and so