BIRDS, MOSQUITOES 245 



Several ways to protect corn from crows. 



Dip the kernels in coal-tar, and then dust them with plaster ; tar the 

 seed; plant it deeply; scatter soaked corn over the field to attract 

 attention from the young plants ; hang streamers of cloth from twine 

 strung about the field on poles ; or use scare-crows. 



To protect young chickens. 



Young chickens may be protected from hawks by covering their 

 runways with fine wire netting. Chickens are comparatively safe 

 when king-birds or purple martins breed about the farm-yard, as these 

 birds drive hawks away. They should be encouraged. Some hawks 

 are frightened away by guinea-hens. A pair of ospreys or fish-hawks 

 nesting near a farmhouse will keep other hawks away. 



Mosquitoes 



The discovery that certain mosquitoes carry the organisms of malaria 

 and other diseases has started a crusade against these pests. We 

 now feel that mosquitoes must be controlled, both as a sanitary meas- 

 ure and as a relief against the insects themselves. 



The chief mode of attack is to destroy their breeding-places. They 

 breed only in standing water. Draining the breeding-places, or filling 

 them up and emptying all receptacles in which water stands, is the 

 first thing to be considered. The big gray mosquitoes that breed in 

 tide marshes are specially pestiferous. They propagate in the brackish 

 pools. These pools should be filled or drained, or else the tide dyked 

 out so that the pools may dry. 



The second thing to consider, if the above cannot be carried out, is 

 to cover the breeding-pools with oil so that mosquito larvae may be 

 deprived of air (they rise to the surface to breathe). 



In fountain tanks, lily ponds, and other water areas that are to be 

 retained, the mosquitoes may be kept down by stocking with fish that 

 eat the larvae or wrigglers. 



Kerosene for mosquitoes (Needham). 



An ounce of kerosene to every 15 square feet of surface is about the 

 right proportion, according to Howard. The film of oil will be retained 



