THE TIM BUNKEIl PAPERS. 297 



day, and died out, or been killed off, because they had be 

 come nuisances. He was inclined to think that it was 

 about time for man, who was lord of nature, to dispense 

 with the services of the crow; he could join the great 

 company of fossils without disturbing the balance of na 

 ture. He admitted he had been useful in the earlier ages, 

 when animal life was more abundant, and the air was 

 likely to be tainted with the effluvia of dead animals. 

 But the farmer did not need such a scavenger now. Dead 

 animals were exceedingly valuable for the compost heap, 

 and he must be a very foolish cultivator who would allow 

 them to waste unburied. Wolves and bears, and other 

 wild animals, had disappeared from the State, without any 

 suspicion that the Almighty had made a mistake in their 

 creation. He thought that the crows could all be killed 

 off without interfering with the divine purposes, accord 

 ing to which man has the responsibility of subduing na 

 ture, and ruling over it.&quot; 



Jake Frink said he was agin crows, and had been from 

 the start. He never had been on more than one side of 

 this question. They pulled up his corn whether it was 

 tar d or not, and strings and scare crows had n t any more 

 influence on em than on the wind. He had seen em light 

 right on a stuffed man. He never d found but one thing 

 to fix em, and that was corn soaked in New Englnnd 

 rum. That made the critters so drunk you could knock 

 em over as easy as lame geese. 



Seth Twiggs thought that was the best use neighbor 

 Frink could put his rum to. If he kept it, he was mighty 

 afraid that somebody besides the crows would become ex 

 tinct. His opinion was that &quot; carrion crow &quot; expressed the 

 character of the bird as well as his habits. He not only 

 pulled up his corn, and bothered him to death with plant 

 ing over, but he destroyed the eggs and young birds in 

 his orchard. He was a thievish, blood-thirsty fellow, 

 ready to ki 11 any thing, that has not strength enough to 



