STRAWBERRY. 85 



he was benefiting the cultivator, who returned this kind- 

 ness with a death-dealing bullet. From a pretty intimate 

 acquaintance with the habits of the crow, having kept 

 several tame ones, I am well satisfied that they are far 

 more beneficial than injurious to the farmer. A crow will 

 eat a hundred white grubs in a day, after he has had a 

 breakfast of an equal number of rose bugs. I do nol. 

 state this as an imaginary case, but as a simple fact that I 

 have proved many times. From experience, I firmly 

 believe that the crow is one of the most useful birds that 

 we possess, although he does a little mischief now and 

 then in the way of pulling up corn. 



When domesticated he forgets those tricks of his wild 

 nature, and, not being a timid bird, he is not frightened by 

 hoe or spade, but when the earth is turned over he is gen- 

 erally there to see and do his duty. 



The wire worm (lulus), which belongs to the Myriapoda 

 or many-footed worms, sometimes attacks the roots of 

 the Strawberry, but I have no accounts which show 

 that they have as yet been very destructive. Frequent 

 plowing and thorough cultivation are the most effective 

 means of destroying them. 



A few years since my Strawberry beds were attacked 

 by a small, greenish-colored worm, somewhat similar in ap- 

 pearance to the Rose Slug (Selandria rosea, of Harris), 

 but their habits were quite different ; inasmuch as they 

 were always curled up when feeding, the lower extremity 

 of the body hanging down under the leaves, while with 

 their fore feet they fastened themselves to the edge of the 

 eaf or the hole they had made through it. 



Sometimes a dozen would be found upon a single leaf, 

 each one curled up in the form of a snail shell. When the 

 worms were extended to full length they were about half 

 an inch long, and sixteenth of an inch in diameter; color 

 greenish- white, with a brown head. They were very 

 numerous the first season, and remained some five or six 



