Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 275 



the liarmless little creatures have sufficient strength to stand. When 

 our ewes are passing the yearning season, we must stand over them 

 with a cudgel to protect young lambs from these ravenous marauders, 

 I well recollect when a boy, of rescuing a little lamb from the talons 

 of a crow, after he had picked out one eye ; and I saw the animal 

 after he had grown to be a large sheep with one eye. During the 

 period when crows are rearing their young ones, they will dive down 

 among our fowls and carry oft' chickens, turkeys, ducks, and goslings 

 to their broods. I have known them to dart down within twenty 

 feet of my dwelling and swoop up chickens and turkeys as large as 

 quails, and larger. And their rapacity does not end here. They sail 

 around the fields and rob every little chippie's and robin's nest of the 

 eggs, or the young birds, in the most relentless manner, even when 

 the trees are covered with worms and the ground filled with grubs. 

 The " carrion old crow " has not one single redeemable virtue to 

 entitle him to an existence among the feathered songsters of the grove. 

 The Creator has fixed the same mark on this cowardly scapegrace 

 as he fixed on old Cain, as the sign of a murderer, and that all who 

 meet him may slay him. 



JVIr. A. J. Caywood. — It will be hard to prove the ideas of farmers 

 on this subject to have been all wrong for a thousand years. For 

 instance, I know the robins eat my cherries, and that I can protect my 

 fruit only by killing some of the robins so the tribe will take warning. 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — For my part, I would rather the robins would 

 take all my cherries than to load a gun to shoot one of tliem. 



Traverse Bay, Michigan. 



Albert Allen, Traverse City. — "We have a good country here, free 

 from ague and bilious diseases. People have to work here to provide 

 for their families, and make for them comfortable homes. It is no 

 place for idlers, nor persons who are easily discouraged ; but if you 

 w\ant to work hard, and eat hearty, come along and bring your wife 

 and little ones. The country is rapidly settling up, but there will be 

 a good chance for poor folks for years to come. If you are a mechanic 

 or a tradesman, and want to settle in town, rent or material for 

 building will be cheap ; your fuel will only cost the hauling, and your 

 entire cost of living, including everytliing you have to buy, will be 

 about ten per cent less than in Ohio, and fifty per cent less than in 

 Eastern Ilew York and New Eno;land. 



