70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from crows. The most successful mode of doing this that 1 

 have ever met with is to put a quantity of tar into boiling* 

 water, stir it up well until the tar is dissolved, and then pour 

 it over the corn. Then let the liquor run through a sieve, 

 and cover the corn with plaster, which prevents the stickiness 

 of it, so that it will run freely through the hand. I do not 

 know that there is any special manurial value in the plaster 

 applied in this way ; the object is simply to prevent the corn 

 from sticking. I have seen occasionally some hills plucked 

 up, but I have never known any general devastation from 

 crows when this tar water was used. I think you will find 

 it. a valuable protection against these very destructive birds. 



Allusion has been made to the difference between sweet 

 corn and southern corn, (Maryland corn, I think,) as food for 

 cattle. I may state that the farmers of Herkimer county have 

 settled that thing satisfactorily. By repeated experiments, 

 they have found that Stowell's sweet corn will cause their 

 cows to yield a much greater amount of milk and cheese — I 

 think it is nearly thirty per cent, more — than the southern 

 corn. I am not speaking of dried corn, after the ears have 

 been taken off, but of what is generally called sowed corn. 

 Herkimer county is the county where the greatest amount of 

 cheese is made, where there is the greatest number of intelli- 

 gent farmers, and where the utmost pains are taken to make 

 reliable experiments, and that is a, settled question there. 



Another thing occurs to me. I have read Dr. Loring's 

 statements on this subject, and disagree with him altogether; 

 and yet I think that the doctor has been visited with an 

 amount of anathema from farmers in regard to his heresies, 

 which is rather undeserved. The fault is in his broad, sweep- 

 ing, and undiscriminating statements. There is no doubt 

 that, sow corn as you will, there is a great deal of nutriment 

 in it, as every dairyman who has tried the experiment must 

 admit. It is, therefore, perfectly useless for Dr. Loring to say 

 that it lias no value whatever. But it is notoriously true, that 

 where corn is sowed so very thickly that no air or sunlight 

 can get to it, where, in a word, the stalk is bleached white, 



