46 BULLETIN" 621, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



A perusal of many replies to inquiries sent to various parts of the 

 country in 1911 and 1912 shows some diversity of opinion even in 

 restricted localities, but by a tabulation of the data under the various 

 States a very good idea of opinions in the different parts of the 

 country has been obtained. 



By far the severest criticism of the corn-eating proclivities of the 

 crow comes from the Northeastern States, including Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 

 ginia, and West Virginia. These States, according to the statistics 

 of 1912, devoted about one twenty-fifth of their total area to the 

 cultivation of corn. On the other hand, comparatively little com- 

 plaint was heard from the farmers of the upper Mississippi Valley, 

 in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, 

 Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas. Of these States Ohio, Indiana, 

 and Wisconsin appear to have the greatest grievance against the 

 crow, though even here, with the possible exception of Indiana, the 

 consensus of opinion was that damage was not serious. In this part 

 of the upper Mississippi River valley nearly one-sixth of the total 

 area (or four times the ratio for the Northeastern States) was de- 

 voted to corn. 



Along with these seemingly irreconcilable figures comes the fact 

 that, notwithstanding the drains which the crow is supposed to make 

 on the corn crop, the farmer of the Northeast produced nearly as 

 many bushels to the acre as his western competitor. As the crow 

 is practically as numerous over much of this western area during 

 spring and summer as in the Eastern States, one is compelled 

 to look further for the cause of its being so much more unwelcome 

 to the corn raisers of the East. A comparison of conditions preva- 

 lent about the average cornfield of the East and the West may 

 suggest the solution. The very fact that the ratio of the corn acre- 

 age to the total area of the West is approximately four times that 

 of the East indicates the existence of much larger fields. The com- 

 parative scarcity of timber suitable for nesting sites in some sec- 

 tions of this western country confines the crows during sprouting 

 time to the vicinity of the limited wooded areas, leaving extensive 

 corn lands wholly free from their attack, while in the East the 

 smaller fields with the intervening wood lots produce conditions 

 admirably adapted to the needs of these birds. Then, too, the exist- 

 ence of more intensive farm operations on the smaller fields of the 

 East accounts in large measure for the increased yield per acre, and 

 at the same time gives reasons for the unfavorable opinion regard- 

 ing this bird. Losses, though even slight, are likely to attract the 

 attention of the assiduous cultivator of a small crop, while damage, 

 oftentimes extensive, frequently will be overlooked by the owner of 



