Evening star., 1948-10-20
This and That
Bu Charles f, Trace1uell

The onrushing depression, which so many
people seem TO be whooping up need not keep
any one from feeding the birds
Wild things in the back yard must eat and
even the poorest person can help them, II by
no more than crusts Of bread, properly sof-
tened with water.
One Connecticut avenue resident writes:
1--WE need more people interested in birds
and small animals
Remind people to put out cantaloupe seeds
watermelon seeds, prune pits, apple cores and
pumpkin Seeds
Il find the wild canaries eating the zinnias
that have gone to seed"
%%*
1t is as easy as that
sunf1ower seeds are expensive. The better
brands of mixed seeds, called wild bird feed y
are too costly for many households.
The birds know nothing about this
What they ask Is food.
And food, to bird, means anything its
bill can pick up.
stray insects, worms on warm days-these are
some of the many items on natures bill of
fare
This is one reason for allowing old annual
flowers and perennials to stay uncut
Too much cleanliness around q garden de-
prives the birds Of some of their natural food
This is why it Is good thing, no matter what
yard to be bit wild in fall and winter.
This eternal raking and sweeping and burn
ing is not natures plan.
She lets the winds do the sweeping and the
raking.
As for fires, they are not in her plan at all.
ANY sort of fire is calamity in the scheme
of things natural.
The home garden in which not too much OF
all these is done is the best home garden
from the famous bird's-eye view.
d 4
Nature will take care of the birds, if you don't
Let every one get that in mind.
So why feed them some one asks?
Because it helps, in hungry world.
And 1t pleases the one who does the feeding
There is world Of amusement in feeding
the birds, watching them eat, seeing their
habits as they develop, sensing the great part
they play in the economy Of the country
Now and then one runs into some contentious
wight who insists that birds do no real good
in the world. Such person simply does not
know what he Is talking about.
Nature is too old for a mere light opinion
to upset IT..
Her scheme of interlocking layers Of life
veritable chain let down from heaven, is
something no man dare meddle with, except
at peril to life to come.
Cutting down our forests letting millions Of
acres wash away to the seas, killing OF the
wild life-these are but few. OF the things
man has done which, according to the latest
word Of our scientists and economists are COM
Ing back to plague us.
& d
Every little bit that any one can do to help
the birds in the cold is just that much done
in line with natures processes.
Perhaps the eternal mother, in the back OF
her crafty head had the idea that kindness Of
heart, developed in her creature called man,
would result in the end, in sharing of mans
food with the brute creatures.
We do, indeed, owe them something, when
we stop to think of all The millions and millions
Of creatures we kill every year for our own food
Give bit Of It back to them to those we
permit to stay alive.
This giving Is not hard and need not be
expensive, and will repay itself many fold by
visions Of Gods eternal beauty, % needed in
an hour when We get too much Of mans
ugliness