240 WILD DUCK 



stretch out their necks, when they are easily caught in the hanging 

 nooses. The decoy net is a more open method of procedure, and 

 still more sportsmanlike ; the use of decoy ducks both for mallard 

 and teal enticement, and then relying on the gun and dog. Fish- 

 hooks, baited with boiled maize and affixed to whipcord lines, 

 are sometimes used by degraded sportsmen for capturing wild duck, 

 regardless of the torture inflicted. 



ROOKS AND SEED CORN. Mr. James Howard, of Clapham Park, 

 Bedford, having improved the recipe for an effective, but non- 

 poisonous, dressing for seed corn which he made public two or 

 three years ago, thus describes his present practice in the Tidies : 



" For 8 bushels of wheat, or 6 bushels of barley, take half 

 a pint of gas tar, 2 Ib. of blue vitriol, and 2 gallons of boiling water. 

 The tar should be accurately measured (not guessed at), and should 

 be of the consistency of treacle. After the tar is put into a pail, 

 i gallon of water should be poured upon it, and well stirred ; the 

 black greasy scum which will rise to the surface should be skimmed 

 off with a wisp of straw or piece of sacking, to which it will readily 

 adhere. While this operation is going on another man should be 

 mixing the [blue] vitriol with the other gallon of water. When 

 ready both lots should be mixed together and poured over the 

 heap of corn previously shot upon the barn floor ; the heap should 

 be well turned over two or three times quickly, so as to saturate 

 the whole. If any tar or dregs remain at the bottom of the pail 

 they should not be poured on the grain, or it will stick together in 

 lumps, and be likely to clog the drill cups. I have used this dressing 

 for several years with complete success ; not a single boy has been 

 employed to mind the fields, nor has a gun been fired. The full plant, 

 however, whether wheat or barley, has afforded evidence that no 

 loss has accrued." (The Gardener's Chronicle, Vol. XII, new 

 series, p. 658.) 



The foregoing Dressing for Seed Corn answers for other kinds 

 of seed against seed-eating birds generally as well as rooks, and 

 also as a preventive of " smut " in cereals. 



