302 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



troubled about grinding the cane, but he has now 

 a mill, of his own make, which works perfectly. 

 With such a mill he could grind all the cane for 

 a large number of flirmers, and at a lower price 

 than they could do it themselves. He doubts if 

 we can make much sugar from the cane so far 

 north as this, except in very favorable seasons. 



For the Neiv England Farmer, 

 CROWS— CBO"WS. 



"Those intelligent, interesting, and mischievous black rogues.''' 



We often hear the remark made that crows do 

 more good to the farmer, than they do harm ; and 

 sometimes we find the same idea expressed in 

 print. It is said they destroy insects ; and they 

 feed on the bodies of dead animals, thus prevent- 

 ing them from putrefying, and poisoning the air. 

 Now I think there is no good excuse, in this part 

 of the country, at least, for the body of any dead 

 animal to lie on the surface of the ground ; it 

 should always be buried. Perhaps where the 

 country is sparsely inhabited, and Avild animals 

 abound, which may die, or be killed, they may 

 have been of some benefit. The damage done by 

 the crow to the farmer's corn crop alone, exceeds 

 the benefit derived from them in the destruction 

 of insects. 



I wish to relate some experience in this line. 

 For a number of years previous to 18G0, right in 

 the face of all the scare-crowing I could do, these 

 black thieves did me more than ten dollars worth 

 of damage yearly. I tried many things to keep 

 them off; a bough house made of pine boughs, 

 with a "stuffed man" in it, which sometimes is ef- 

 fectual, was of no use. I hung up dead crows in 

 the field, and they would pull up the corn within 

 two rods of them ; I tried a line around the field, 

 fastening it to poles eight or ten feet from the 

 ground, and they would go down into the middle 

 of the field, and pull it up the faster. I was 

 forced, in order to keep them off, to watch the 

 field right in the midst of planting, when time was 

 worth more than money. One year I planted a 

 half acre rather late, and being from homo a day 

 or two, they dug out, and pulled up the largest 

 share of it. And yet they have not served me as 

 badly as they have some others. I know a man 

 who cultivated land a mile or so from where he 

 lived. He manured a field bountifully, and 

 planted it with corn. In a short time he went to 

 look at his sprhiging corn, as he fondly anticipat- 

 ed, when lo ! it was all pulled up ! He planted it 

 the second time, and the second time it was all 

 pulled up ; then it M'as late ; he must plant it with 

 potatoes. He was a poor man ; this was all the 

 corn he planted. Now let any crow-fancier have 

 such an experience as this, and I have no doubt it 

 would cure him of his partiality for the black ras- 

 cals. 



In the spring of 1860, I planted a field of about 

 an acre and a half with corn ; two or three days 

 after finishing the planting, I went to the field, ami 

 found that the crows had begun to dig it out. I 

 took some small stakes, four or five feet long, and 

 run a line around the field ; also up through the 

 centre, then crossed it several limes on the up])er 

 end, where the crows had begun to work. The 

 next morning I went out to the field, and up flew 

 an old crow from between the twines at the lower I 



end. There were some twenty or thirty hills dug 

 into. Wishing to ascertain if twine could be put 

 on so as to keep them off', I bought a ball contain- 

 ing about half a mile in length, and wove it all on ; 

 they did not go on to the field again. 



Last year, as soon as our corn was planted, the 

 twine was wove on ; and although crows were 

 about pretty plenty, it escaped damage, being "let 

 alone." The crows would fly along with a "caw, 

 caw," in their peculiar, warning note. 



I have noticed in the spring, when ci"ows pair 

 off, and separate from the return flock, to build 

 their nests, they ap])ear to have a kind of division 

 of the land, so that each pair have their particular 

 fields to themselves ; and although before they 

 roamed peaceal)ly over the whole, in common, 

 now one pair will not let another transgress their 

 bounds. 



Crows possess some good traits ; they exercise 

 benevolence towards one another, as well as affec- 

 tion for their young. I saw one in a flock that 

 was disabled, and hopped on one leg ; others in 

 the flock would get food, and carry it to him. I 

 got a nest of youug^crows, one spring, from a 

 wood nearly a mile off; they were almost ready to 

 fly. Knowing that there Avas a nest in a small 

 piece of -svoods not far from the house, I took one 

 of them, tied a string to its leg, and made it fist 

 to a stake, out in a lot, then watched to see what 

 would happen. In a short time an old crow came 

 flying over ; the young one saw her, and cried for 

 help ; the old one answered, but still kept on, and 

 afterwards returned to her nest. The next time 

 slie came over, the young crow called louder than 

 before. The old one circled around, and lit on 

 the fence a short distance off, and after some ma- 

 nieuvreing, she went to the young crow, and tried 

 to liberate him by picking at the string. Not suc- 

 ceeding in this, she -went off, and soon returned 

 with something for it to eat. She continued to do 

 this, going four or five times to her nest, and then 

 rcturriing to my prisoner. I now took my gun, 

 went out, and lay in ambush. In a short time she 

 came %vith her mouth full, lit a short distance from 

 her charge, and ran towards it ; just before she 

 reached it, I fired ; she rose up, perhaps three feet 

 from the ground, and flew fifteen or twenty rods 

 directly towards her nest, and dropt dead. ' Was 

 I cruel? Would not the reader like to hear that 

 Floyd had been shot ? Well, this black rebel stole 

 corn right from my neiglibor's field, every kernel 

 being worth more than a hundred-fold to him. 



Laying aside all other charges, there is one way 

 in which I consider that crows do the farmer more 

 injury, than all the good they can possibly do in 

 every way. That is, in their destroying the" young 

 of otiier l)irds. It is wqW known "that the "young 

 of domestic fowls are taken whenever they" come 

 in their way ; then just consider how many of the 

 young of harmless and useful little birds must 

 fall a prey to their rapacity, when there is hardly 

 a nook or corner, a tree or bush, but what they 

 scour in search of plunder. 



Birds that Ijcat the crow, will not allow one to 

 come near their nests. A pair of king-birds have 

 built their nest on an a])i)le tree near the house 

 for a numl)er of years, and there are always two or 

 three nests of other birds on the same tree, though 

 there are other trees near by, that they might just 

 as well build on. Is it not "for greater safety that 

 they build there ? If a crow comes within an 



