106 BOAED OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan , 



the corn had got pretty good size. I wont say it was eighteen 

 inches high, but it was good stout corn. In that case, I be- 

 lieved that they pulled it from sheer malice. 



Mr. Ayer. I have regarded the crow, for the last five 

 years, as a particular friend of the farmer. I have planted 

 from eight to twelve acres of corn each year, for five years, 

 and I don't think I have lost twenty hills of corn by crows. 

 A tame crow is a very mischievous creature. They seem to 

 know a great deal. I have known them to eat jackknives, 

 spools of tliread, and various things of that kind. They did 

 not want for food, but they did it out of pure malice, you 

 might say, or love of mischief. In planting corn I never tar 

 the seed, but I do not allow myself to go out of the field un- 

 til I have got a string around it on high poles; and a wind 

 mill, with a little rattle-box on it, that makes a noise. That 

 seems to be sufficient to keep off the crows. On one end of 

 a field of tobacco, where they got into the habit of going to 

 pick the worms from an old pile of manure, I found no green 

 worms during the season, while they were very prevalent in 

 other parts of the field where the crows did not go. So I re- 

 gard them as good friends of the farmer as any kind that the 

 Professor has mentioned this evening. 



Mr. Goodwin. I had supposed that the crow was a scav- 

 enger of the forest, and did good service in destroying the 

 worms, grubs, and insects that depredated upon our trees. I 

 would like to call the Professor's attention to that. He has 

 answered that they were not ; that they were eminently a 

 grain-eating bird. If that is a fact, it would confirm the gen- 

 tleman's experience who has just sat down. I have raised 

 some forty crops of corn, and whenever I have thoroughly 

 twined it at the time of planting, I have never known the 

 crows to pull it up. I can confirm Mr. Gold's experience. I 

 have had corn pulled up, after my twine was down, in very 

 damp places, in wet times, after it got up to the height of 

 seven or eight inches. But they did not pull it very exten- 

 sively. I guess they found the grain was rotted, and they 

 left it on the ground. 



