1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



359 



the txcavation of a neighbor's door-yard, so as 

 to endanger life and limb when he goes forth to 

 the highway, or undermine his fences, or do any 

 thing that shall incommode any one or mar the 

 general beauty of the landscape ? 



Towns' should be more considerate in the se 

 lection of their agents to do the necessary and 

 important work of repairing the roads. Con- 

 stant feuds and great hostility of feeling annvi- 

 ally grow out of the unnecessary depredations 

 of highway-surveyors. 



For ihe New England FartneT. 



SHINGLES AND NAILS. 



Mr. Editor : — An article appeared in your 

 paper of the 6th of March last, where a writer at- 

 tributes the rusting of nails to "sawed shingles," 

 and goes on to say, (speaking of another person) 

 "but by a little investigation he will without 

 doubt find it attributable to their contact with 

 salt water;" he then adds, "it is believed that the 

 complaints of shingles rusting the nails is most- 

 ly confined to the sea-board towns and eastern 

 shingles." Now salt and iron, M'e all know, do 

 not agree very well, but there are some other 

 causes which should be taken into account. 



1. By experience I have found that nails made 

 of poor or cast "puddled" iron will sometimes 

 rust ofl" in seven years with sawed or rift shingles, 

 but generally perish soonest in the former. 



2. The nailing of sawed shingles the grain 

 "wrong side up." They should be laid so as to car- 

 ry the water out of the pores instead of into the 

 wood. 



3. Using a slender, light nail, well known by 

 carpenters who work by the job and find the ma- 

 terials. The undersigned shingled a house in 

 1833 with sawed cedar shingles, and with red 

 chalk marked every one with a cross for "this side 

 up; "it did not want recovering until 18j7 — 24 

 years. He shingled another in 1840, in the 

 same manner, and it was in good order in 1856. 

 This last was the "Old Cole White House," (well 

 known here,) which was i)artly removed and the 

 rest demolished this year ; this gave a chance to 

 examine both shingles and nails. The former 

 were in good order and the latter were "as good 

 as new," as far as the carpenter and myself 

 could discover. I will here mention that these 

 nails were rolled and cut from old sable iron by 

 one of your citizens, Jarvis Danforth, Esq., at 6 

 cts. per lb., or one cent extra ; the price of com- 

 mon ones being 5 cts., as the price was then. I 

 would recommend using the same material, or its 

 equivalent, as a matter of economy for the own- 

 ers of buildings, especially if the shingles are 

 clear of sap, or nearly so.' With this I send a 

 shingle whh a nail placed on a house in this 

 place in 1785 ;_ one of our oldest townsmen, Capt. 

 Job Godfrey, informs me that he remembered 

 when they were put on, and in that age nearly 

 all the shingles used came from tlie "Great 

 Swamp," and all "heart stuff," which appeared to 

 be the case. The house last spoken of was stripped 

 in April last, and the shingle and nail came from 

 the wall ; the roof had been repaired since it was 

 built. Jonathan Hodges. 



' Taiadon, 1858. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CROV/S. 



Many of the ancient nations worshipped all 

 the offensive creatures they could find, placing 

 highest in the calendar^those most loathsome and 

 harmful. I suppose it is on the same principle 

 that the crow has lately been commended in va- 

 rious periodicals to our regards as a very harm- 

 less and useful bird. I am no ornithologist, and 

 am less acquainted with the habits of the bird in 

 question than are others, but certain facts respect- 

 ing it I suppose are well established. 



1. It inclines to prey upon the cornfields in 

 the spring, and can be kept off only by great care 

 and trouble. Our practical farmers assure us 

 that the loss occasioned by its depredations is 

 often severe. They also not unfrequently dam- 

 age seriously potato fields in the spring by 

 scratching open the hills. 



2. They destroy vast multitudes of the smaller 

 birds. There is nothing for Avhich they have 

 so keen an appetite as the eggs and young of 

 our singing birds. Last June a robin's nest, in 

 a maple standing within two rods of my house, 

 was robbed by a crow, and I caught them after- 

 wards doing the same thing in the apple trees 

 that stand close to the house. You may see 

 them not unfrequently flying from tree to tree 

 through an orchard, hunting their j)rey on each 

 limli. All "the unmannerly fowlers" put togeth- 

 er do not destroy a tenth part of the singing 

 birds that are annually consumed l)y this black 

 monster. 



And what services do his advocates plead in 

 arrest of judgment for these crimes ? "Why, he 

 sometimes removes offal that the lazy owner 

 has failed to cover up for the benefit of his lands. 

 Still further, they may be seen in the spring and 

 fall, (in the summer while the birds are nesting 

 they are above such business,) in our pastures 

 and meadows at a safe distance from the house, 

 and usually on the most worthless land, picking 

 worms from the earth, which some conjecture 

 are hurtful to the grass. The gardens and high- 

 ly cultivated fields about our dwellings, they 

 never a])proach unless to murder a nest of sing- 

 ing birds. For these very doubtful benefits it 

 is proposed to let them live, when the life of each 

 one involves the destruction of scores of singing 

 lairds every season, birds whose presence and 

 whose music form so great an attraction to'\our 

 country houses, and whose usefulness in our 

 gardens and orchards no one will for a moment 

 question. They v/ere undoubtedly made for 

 some desirable end, as were hundreds of squash 

 bugs and borers, and so on. The great end they 

 all seem to us to answer is in the exercise of our 

 patience, while they live, and in the practice of 

 our skill to destroy them. It is long since I have 

 found it in my heart to shoot a partridge or 

 squirrel, the beautiful occupants of our fields 

 and forest are worth more alive than dead, but 

 for border ruffians I have no pity. Justice. 



Groion, 1858. 



Treatment of Hens. — Two flocks of hens 

 wei'e coiupared. One laid eggs almost all the 

 time ; the other laid scarcely any. On examining 

 their treatment, the following differences were 

 found to exist ; the former had a warm cellar to 



