296 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



Deacon Smith was chairman for the evening and stated 

 the question. He said &quot;it was admitted that the crow 

 did some good and a great deal of mischief. The point 

 was to find out whether he did more good or hurt. 



Jotham Sparrowgrass said he did not think there was 

 any question at all about it. He knew what he was about 

 when he went to the Legislature at Hartford, well-nig! i 

 fifty years ago,^nd got the law passed to give a bounty 

 on foxes and crows. He said both of em were the farm 

 er s enemies, and he didn t know which was the worst. 

 He said our fathers understood their cases, and killed them 

 off as fast as they could lay hands on them. Talk about 

 crows destroying bugs ! He has shot *em many a time, 

 and he always found more corn and carrion in their crops 

 than anything else. 



Cicero Smith said he was astonished to hear such sen 

 timents from his venerable friend. He thought the crow 

 had not been made in vain. If it had not been for some 

 good end he would never have been brought into exist 

 ence, and been made so hardy and prolific. He was a 

 very long-lived and very shy bird, so that with all the 

 warfare which men had made upon them they were as 

 numerous as ever. They were the farmers friends, pick 

 ing up a multitude of grubs and worms that preyed upon 

 his crops, and acting the part of a scavenger in removing 

 dead animals, that would otherwise pollute the atmos 

 phere ; they pulled up some corn, to be sure, but every 

 laborer was worthy of his hire. 



Mr. Spooner, our minister, said he found some diffi 

 culty with Mr. Smith s argument. A good many crea 

 tures had been made for a different state of the w T orld 

 thtin existed at present, and if we admitted that they were 

 originally useful, it would not follow that they could not 

 very well be spared now. He said they had found over 

 in Shadtown, and in many other places, the remains of ex 

 tinct birds, beasts and fishes. These fossils had hud their 



