74 BULLETIN 621, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the landowners, especially those in the southern colonies, still 

 resorted to the " grain minder " — the negro children in many cases 

 being thus employed. At the same time various mechanical devices 

 came to be used to do the tedious work, and experiments, which 

 doubtless had their origin in Europe in the use of certain deterrents 

 applied to the seed grain, also were tried, thus making the crops in 

 question at least partially immune to the attacks of these birds. Sev- 

 eral of these deterrents have proved effective and by their use many 

 farmers have reduced in large measure their annual losses from 

 crows. 



FRIGHTENING DEVICES. 



It is not necessary to describe in detail the many well-known de- 

 vices employed as " scarecrows." These include the time-honored 

 straw-stuffed human effigy; various unusual objects, as pieces of 

 shining tin moving in the wind, glass bottles, windmills which oper- 

 ate noise-producing mechanisms, ears of corn and newspapers placed 

 on the ground ; twine stretched about and across the fields from poles 

 placed at intervals; and bodies of dead crows hung in conspicuous 

 places. One or another of these contrivances has brought the desired 

 results on occasions, but all have failed at other times. None can be 

 considered infallible. 



DETERRENTS. 



Much of the damage to corn and other grains is at sprouting time. 

 The difficulty, however, has been met fairly well by the application 

 of deterrents upon the seed. Experiments along this line have been 

 made for many years and as early as the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century methods had been perfected. Even at that time several dif- 

 ferent substances had been used to coat the seed. The most successful 

 involved the use of coal tar. Since these early experiments many 

 other methods and formulas embodying the use of tar have been 

 devised. These, however, varied but little and aimed merely to secure 

 an even and thorough coating of the seed, which was followed by a 

 drying process either by spreading the grain or by the application 

 of some drying medium, as lime, ashes, or land plaster. 



A few years ago the Kansas State Agricultural College Experiment 

 Station conducted a series of experiments to ascertain the usefulness 

 of certain deterrents on seed grain against burrowing animals. Inci- 

 dentally the effect of these various substances upon the germinating 

 powers of the seed was investigated. In a report 1 on this work, 

 Theo. H. Scheffer stated in part: 



Kerosene, crude petroleum, copperas, crude carbolic acid, fish oil, and spirits 

 of camphor, when used in sufficient quantity or strength to impart an odor to 

 the corn, seriously injure the germinating powers of the grain. To treat the 



^irc. 1, Kansas State Agr. Coll. Exp. Sta., p. 3, April 28, 1909. 



