THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 85 



Miscellaneous Crops. 



Melons, especially watermelons, are at times considerably dam- 

 aged by the crow in southern States; small fruits occasionally are 

 attacked; and still more rarely crops of cultivated nuts and garden 

 truck are levied upon. 



DISTRIBUTION OF LIVE-STOCK DISEASES. 



As a distributor of disease the crow, along with the turkey buz- 

 zard, has been a target for much unjust criticism. While the crow 

 may be an agent in the transmission of live-stock diseases, it does 

 not follow that even the extermination of this species would mate- 

 rially lessen the danger of infection. As the agencies at work in 

 the transmission of virus are many and difficult of control, the 

 elimination of but one would aid little. Inoculation and the strictest 

 sanitation and quarantine are the farmer's strongest weapons in the 

 fight against such epizootics. 



DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS. 



The crow's consumption of wild fruit in itself involves nothing 

 of economic interest, as the embryos of the seeds eaten are seldom 

 destroyed, but as this material is regurgitated after the digestible 

 portion has been assimilated it is apparent that the crow thereby be- 

 comes an agent in the dispersal of seeds. When engaged in the dis- 

 tribution of seeds of valuable or even harmless trees and shrubs, the 

 crow is conferring a benefit ; but when it assists in the spread of such 

 noxious plants as poison ivy and poison oak, the opposite interpreta- 

 tion must be given. Since, however, numerous other birds have the 

 same objectionable habit, the crow's consumption of such seeds has a 

 limited influence for good; the large quantity it devours doubtless 

 reduces the supply available for other species which do not deposit 

 so large a percentage of the seeds in places where they will never 

 sprout as does the crow. 



CONCLUSION. 



When feeding on injurious insects, crustaceans, rodents, and car- 

 rion, and when dispersing seeds of beneficial plants, the crow is work- 

 ing largely for the best interests of man; when destroying small 

 reptiles, amphibians, wild birds, poultry, corn, and some other crops, 

 when molesting live stock and distributing their diseases, and when 

 spreading seeds of noxious plants, the bird is one of the farmer's 

 enemies; when destroying spiders and mollusks, however, its work 

 appears in the main to have a neutral effect. The misdeeds of which 

 the crow has been convicted greatly outnumber its virtues, but these 



