Evening star., 1944-03-31
This and That
By Charles E. Trace1Ueu.

Persons wishing to secure the maxi
mum OF cooperation from the birds
this year should invite them to help in
the annual cleaning up of the yard
The best way to do this is see to it
that they have the time from 4 o'clock
to dusk IN which to call the garden
their own.
While some Of them will come with
humans around, many more will be
glad to assist in the turned-over garden
II 1t Is free from human company.
Probably this is not very compli-
mentary, on the part of the birds, but
it is the price we must pay for having
trapped and shot them for centuries.
Raking the leaves and lawn turns up
countless forms of insect life, which
the spring birds, including the mi
orators, find most acceptable food.
Common sparrows discover nothing
more to their liking than a patch of
lawn which has just freshly received
the ministrations of the rake.
This instrument, in addition to tax
ing of leaves and loose detritus of the
garden, turns up old seeds and insects,
including some of the smaller worms.
Sparrows will leave freshly-stocked
feeding station, brimming with good
seeds, for this natural fare and no
wonder. for it is all right out of natures
cupboard.
II more home-owners would stop fuss
Ing and fuming about the sparrows,
and seek their aid, they would find in
time that these small finches were not
half as black as painted.
X
The smear" campaign against the
common sparrow came at a time when
the country was disappointed in the
results of the importation of this spe-
cies. The house sparrow, which we now
mostly call the English sparrow, was
brought into this country to help kill
the canker worm, which was destroying
the New York trees.
The sparrow, it is needless to saw,
failed, but what bird wouldn't? The
mistake in all such importations comes
in the impossibility of such tasks, in
the first place. BY the time the aliens
have gotten their bearings in a new
land, the pest has increased to point
where nothing much can be done
about it,
Consider the japanese beetle. The
latest finding of science is that we will
do well to hold our own against it. The
time has gone by, according to the ex-
perts, to even think of exterminating it.
The best we can do is keep it in check.
The English sparrow will prove its
worth in any garden where it is given
a fair show.
This applies also to the startling, an
other much abused species, but also
very interesting and, we believe, a help
full bird.
Where most gardeners fall down, in
getting real aid from the BIRDS is to
hog the land for themselves all during
the daylight hours
Since the hours from to dark are
the only ones great many persons
have to work in the yard, some effort
should be made by them to permit the
birds to have one end of the garden
at least. Work can be so managed that
after one portion is raked and swept
it may be left for time to the activities
Of our feathered friends, which the
birds really are, all playful sneering
aside.
Many gardeners think that because
the sparrows in the hard pavement
areas of the city do not seem in the
least afraid they should be similarly
brave in the suburban sections. Home
owners should realize that it is a oues-
ton OF must in the city streets; the
birds either take chances there or 60
hungry. In the suburbs they become
more natural, and so are afraid of man.
as they jolly well have right to be,
after all these centuries.
Give the birds a chance to eat the
practically invisible creatures which the
rake turns up, and you will have bet
ter yard and especially a better Vic
tory garden. Constant cultivation of
the vegetable garden is good thing
which becomes all the better if the
songsters are given an hour Of their
own to eat all that the rake turns UP.