252 Transactions of the American Institute. 



The Chairman — But this is only opinion. Are there any of us 

 here who have facts ? 



Mr. Bragdon — We know that our own stock has been improved 

 by importations from the old country, where a more scientific and 

 highly civilized system of breeding obtains. 



Mr. H. T. Williams — During a recent visit to Omaha I had occa- 

 sion to observe with much satisfaction that better stock is being 

 introduced in that vicinity and further west, and that. in this way the 

 standard of native animals is being elevated. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman — When railway facilities are increased, Texas 

 cattle can be brought to this city for twenty -five dollars. This will 

 give a stimulus to the trade, and ranchmen even there will take an 

 interest in growing better stock. The question is whether our choice 

 Kentucky will fall when a Texas bullock can be driven out of a car at 

 Communipaw at twenty-five dollars. 



Hon. Geo. Geddes — I once thought that the wool for our eastern 

 markets must be grown west of the Missouri. I afterward learned I 

 was wrong. The truth is, Texas cattle brought all the way by rail 

 would make worthless beef. They must start as calves, and come 

 east by easy stages, and grow a year or so at each station, stopping 

 by the way and eating, as our friend John S. Gould says, 6,000 

 bushels of corn. 



The Crow. 



Dr. J. Y. C. Smith — From a general expression of hostility to 

 crows among farmers, predicated altogether on mistaken views of 

 their habits and character, the object of this paper is to overcome an 

 unjust prejudice by simply adverting to facts familiar to naturalists, 

 which are really of importance to the agricultural interests of the 

 country. Like sharks, which have had immense labors to perform in 

 every period of the world's history since the coal formations, the 

 family of corvidse, to which the crow belongs, have also held an inter- 

 esting position from a remote epoch in the geological revolutions of 

 the globe. They abound in Europe, Asia, Africa, and extensively 

 in America from the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific, and far into 

 the warm regions of the south. 



Such are the functions imposed upon them in the economy of 

 nature they were necessarily organized for being at home almost in 

 every climate. And for better enabling them to act efficiently, they 

 combine, both in structure and sagacity, the physical properties of 

 several groups of birds. Crows are exceedingly voracious. Their 



