1878.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



d57 



tlie General used a pony Inanely glass as a 

 measure. It held 350 dead tlics. 



Tliere were seventeen and a half <;lasses of 

 Hies to each trap, and nearly thirty-six glasses 

 between the two. This gave a total of 12,250 

 flies. As the traps are emptied thrice a day, 

 Capt. Waterman must kill 30,750 every twen- 

 ty-i'our hours. If yesterday was an average 

 day for Hies, and he thinks it was, he has 

 slaughtered 514,450 within two weeks, and 

 there have been 1,004,750 executions since the 

 1st of .Inly. 



There are 1S4 hotels in this city. If each 

 proprietor is as remorseless as Capt. Water- 

 man, 0,701,000 Hies bite tlie dust between 

 sunrise and sunrise. If this is so, m('),001),000 

 of these innocent insects have been sw«i)t 

 from existence by New York landlords since 

 the first of the mouth. But the Hies seem to 

 have a peculiar penchant for restaurants. If 

 30,750 a day are killed in a barroom, at least 

 double that number ought to be killed in a 

 restaurant. There arc nearly 2,000 restaur- 

 ants in the city, and the good Dr. (Jrosby sets 

 the metropolis down for 8,000 liquor saloons. 

 Each li(|uor saloon ought to return figures 

 equal to those of Capt. Waterman. A table 

 like the following would be somewhere near 

 the truth. : 



UoUBes. No. flies killed. 



Hotels r>,761,000 



Restuurauts 147,llQ(l,eoil 



Liquor Silloeus 294,UO0,00O 



Privii(» Uosideuces 50.0110,000 



Butcher Shops 7,oiio,iiOD 



aroccries 300,000,» (0 



Markets 10,000,000 



Candy Shells 3,000,000 



Drug Stores 3,000,000 



■Tribune Office 1,000,000 



Total 821,761,000 



*A moderate estimate, considering the condition of that 

 jourual. 



These figures arc believed to be under 

 rather than over the number of flies actually 

 trapped and executed in this city every day. 

 They give the startling total of 23,747,009,000 

 drowned since July 1st. 



Futbermoie. Twelve of Captain Water- 

 man's pony brandy glasses hold a half pint 

 of flies. He murders four pints and a half 

 every day. Carry out the figures on this basis, 

 and we have the following astonishing result: 



Places Pints of Flies. 



Hotels 826 



Restaurants 1 8,000 



Livqor Saloons 36,000 



Private Residences 7,452 



Butcher Shops 928 



Mirkets 1,100 



Candy Shops 400 



Drug Stores 400 



■Tribune Oflice 100 



Total 65,208 



*A moderate estimate, considering the condition of that 

 jourual. 



The result is still more startling. If the 

 figures are correct 1,879,432 pints of flies have 

 been slaughtered by these traps since the be- 

 ginning of the hot weather. Analyze the 

 pints, and we have 9.30,310 quarts, or 23,424 

 gallons, enough dead flies to sink one of Com- 

 missioner Nichol's oflal boats. All this is ex- 

 clusive of those that lost their lives by acci- 

 dents. At least 1,000,000 are drowned in 

 milk, tea, and coflee ; another 1,000,000 are 

 whipped to death by the tails of mules and 

 horses ; many are talked to death, and a far 

 greater number are poisoned by sampling 

 Fourth ward whisky. 



Nor is this all. Of the 821,761,000 (more or 

 less) daily sent to a better or far worse world 

 it is estimated that 60,000,000 are pie eaters, 

 100,000,000 sugar tasters, .-)00,00(),000 partici- 

 pators in free lunches, 100,000,000 molasses 

 samplers. 200,000,000 meat and fi.sh destroy- 

 ers, 19,242 politicians, 100,000,000 dock bum- 

 mers, and the remainder of various profes- 

 sions. 



At all events, if this is a tnily great and 

 good world, the above figures ought to rest 

 heavily on the consciences of all the makers of 

 fly traps. — JT. Y. Sim. 



StrBSCRiBEK, please consult the little label 

 on your paper, and if you find yourself in the 

 arrears remit at once, as the printer wants 

 money to pay his bills. 



VERIFIABLE INCIDENTS IN CROW- 

 NOLOQY. 



Among all the Pnx^nr.-i, probably there is 

 no species which exl]il)its so much craft or 

 memory as our common crow. Their cau- 

 tious approach to corn fields (uuitainiugslrings 

 lied to sticks anil various devices of the scare- 

 crow order, their cniploynu-Mt of sOntinels 

 while feeding, and their aili'oitness in evading 

 pursuit, witli oilier cvidenc.es, certainly indi- 

 cate considerable intelligence. 



When tamed, sniui! specimens manifest 

 (iuit(! a shrewd faculty of aiiprehension. 

 Among the many means resorleil to fur lessen- 

 ing their number is that of shooting down the 

 nests containing yuong, during their breeding 

 season. 



Aliout two years ago a young friend of mine 

 brought l.iack, all alive, from one ol'thesii ex- 

 lieditions, tin-ce young inhabitants of a bom- 

 barded nest. Dick, the one kept, has prov(^d 

 to be very talkative, anil his inquisitiveness is 

 perfectly comical when he has come upon 

 something new to him. lie will look it all 

 over very carefully, chattering and making 

 the queerest of noises, until he has thoroughly 

 satisfied his curiosity. After he became old 

 enough to Hy, his primaries were kept clipped ; 

 but afterwards, by an oversight, his wings 

 grew out enough to enable him to Hy off to 

 the woods, where he remained two days and 

 then lit in a neighljor's orchard, and there 

 kept up a continuous cawing. Finally the 

 owner went out with his gun, saying, "I'll 

 just let Mr. Crow have a little of the benefit 

 of my yesterday's 'trap-shooting.' " 



The report of the gun frightened Dick 

 nearly out of his wits ; he flew to tlu^ ground 

 at the fanner's feet, entirely unhurt, but 

 uttering the most frightful screams and flut- 

 tering about in the greatest distress, until he 

 was recognized as Dick, promptly captured 

 and borne to his home, where he has since 

 remained, with full-fledged wings, in perfect 

 contentment. 



Dick understands farming enough to know 

 that after a crop is planted it should be har- 

 vested ; but he was a trifle too ready to har- 

 vest some rare bulbs, which were set out in 

 flower-plats, with the crow along as an ob- 

 server. No viridescent blades were seen to 

 shoot forth in the little parterre, nor was a 

 single bulb to be found, until a month after- 

 wards, when all were discovered snugly piled 

 under some rubbish in a corner. 



He soon had the house plants fixed in the 

 same way. His keepers, thinking they had 

 broken him of his mischievousness, let the 

 plants remain on the piazza ; Imt more than 

 once in Dick's favorite working hours, just 

 betore light, acrash of crockery and the crow's 

 peculiar laugh and caw told them that a fa- 

 vorite coleus or geranium was riddled to pieces. 

 His performances when the cat is eating are 

 sure to excite a laugh all around. He will 

 strut up beside pussy and suddenly strike her 

 with his talon, and then run off, making the 

 queerest kind of a chuckle, seeming to invite 

 the attention of all to his smartness. His 

 treatment of two kittens, however, was even 

 a trifle worse. He killed and devoured every 

 morsel of them, except their skins, and these 

 he buried under some chips in the corner of 

 the wood-house. There he guards them by 

 fighting when necessary and screeching when 

 any one approaches the spot, as vigorously to- 

 day as when he fir.st put them there. Once he 

 killed a young turkey ; but being " caught in 

 the act," the owner took him by the legs with 

 one hand and whipiied his bead over the palm 

 of the other, until Dick was in a demoralized 

 condition, so that ever since his memory is 

 excellent concerning the rightful " manage- 

 ment of poultry." Not a dog dares touch 

 him, except in play. A large Newfound- 

 land and liimself have great fun in mutual 

 frolics. This dog has a small tuft of while 

 hairs at the end of his tail, and in this Dick 

 has always been so greatly interested that he 

 has picked them out, little by little, until but 

 few remain. 



He will trip over an eight-quart pail of water 

 left in his way. When he cannot reach the 



rim so as to take hold with his beak, he has 

 been known to drag a wash-basin and tip it 

 over close to the pail and stand on it. One 

 afternoon he was about the piazza, where a 

 lady was engaged in sewing. Dick watched 

 her closely. Smui shti Went in to supper, lay- 

 ing her lhiml)l(' on a chair. linmediately 

 Dick grabbed it up in his beak and Hew into a 

 neighboring tree, talkingaway at the greatest 

 rate. Nothing would induce him to come 

 down ; but a well-directed stii^k brought out 

 one of his wide-mouthed shrieks, and down 

 came the thimble. 



lie hugely enjoys a wash-off in a rain-storm, 

 and in winter he has great sport, diving into 

 th(^ snow, |ilowing inider it out of sight, like a 

 mole, and uttering his liecnliar chalter and 

 laughs of pleasure continually. The other 

 night his owner, aroused by the most fright- 

 ful screams in the wood-shed, rushed out 

 there in a hurry, ex|ieeting to find Dick the 

 prey of an owl ; but a careful " canva.ss" dis- 

 closed nothing but the fact that his nest had 

 fallen from its jierch. 



Without discussing the protection of birds 

 or their benefits to man, it is certain that the 

 crow's alert and suspicious nature, in its wild 

 slate, is bi'neficial to the farmer. If he but 

 stretches twine across h\f, corn field before a 

 single blad(^ has appeared above ground, he 

 will not be molested by this inconsi.slently-de- 

 tested bird, which in no year destroys as 

 much of his cro]) as that not-to-be-frightened 

 species, the purple Crackle or common IJlack- 

 bird. — JJe Vreait.c. 



PLEASURES IN FARMING. 



Ex-Senator Chandler had something wise 

 to say about farming, as well as something 

 significant about politics, when he addressed 

 his neighbors at his farm in Michigan not 

 long ago. He declared that farming was not 

 only the oldest, but the most respectable oc- 

 cupation known to man. "If I had a boy to- 

 day," he exclaimed, " 1 would rather put him 

 on an eighty-acre lot that had never had a 

 ])lough or an axe njion it than place him in 

 the best government oHice in the land I" Ag- 

 ricultural papers will please copy the remark, 

 and farmers' lads who are growing up dissat- 

 isfied with country life, and who cannot over- 

 come a restless desire to go to a city and enter 

 a jirofession, will do well to remember it. 

 "Make your home pleasant," continued the 

 ex-Secretary, "make them so attractive that 

 your sons and daughters will love their homes 

 better than any other place on God's earth. 

 !Makc this business of fiirming so agreeable 

 that your sons will .see that it is the most 

 healthful and profitable occupation in which 

 they can engage. IJuild good houses and buy 

 good implements. Don't, get an old cracked 

 cook stove, but put in a good range. In fact, 

 have every convenience that you can, so that 

 your wives and daughters will deem it a i)leas- 

 ure to perform their household work, ^n this 

 way you can bring up your .sons and daughters 

 on the farm, but when you make the home 

 repulsive, you drive tbein into clerkships and 

 otlier menial jiositions, when they ought to be 

 (iod's anointed lordsof creation." These are 

 lilain words, but they are crammed with hard 

 sense. 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 

 The humming-birds form one compact fam- 

 ily, named Trochilida^ They are all small 

 birds, the largest known being aliout the size 

 of a swallow, while the smallest are minute 

 creatures whose bodies are hardly larger than 

 a humble-bee. Their distinguisliiiig features 

 are excessively .short legs and feet, very long 

 and pointed wings, a long and slender bill, 

 and a long extensible tubular tongue ; and 

 these characters are found combined in no 

 other birds. The feet are exceedingly small 

 and delicate, often beautifully tufted with 

 down, and so short as to be hardly visible be- 

 yond the plumage. The toes are placed as in 

 most birds, three in front and one behind, and 

 have very strong and .sharply-curved claws, 

 and the feet serve probably to cling to their 

 perch rather than to support the weight of th© 



