The Crow in Its Relation to Agriculture. 15 



itself method of caring for fowls. A little attention to the screening 

 of young chicks and the suitable housing of setting hens will obviate 

 most losses of this kind. In its feeding on small mammals, its 

 annoyance of young live stock, and its consumption of carrion, the 

 crow has tendencies about equally divided between good and bad. 

 The accusation that it is a dominant factor in the distribution of 

 live-stock diseases has little substantiating evidence. 



Of the vegetable food, corn is the principal item. It is the crow's 

 staff of life and furnishes over 38 per cent of its annual sustenance. 

 In the consumption of this grain the bird comes in most frequent con- 

 flict with the farmer. Much of the corn eaten, however, is secured 

 from October to March, when waste grain necessarily forms a large 

 part of the supply. Deterrents, as coal tar, on the seed have lessened 

 losses to sprouting grain, especiaily in small isolated fields, but, when 

 " in the roasting ear," the corn crop is subject to annoying and de- 

 structive attacks by the crow, difficult to prevent. The crow also 

 levies a certain toll on small grains, as wheat and sorghums ; melons 

 are subject to attack and even cultivated fruits at times are damaged. 



The offenses of which the crow has been accused outnumber its 

 good deeds, but this does not mean that they are equal in importance. 

 Many of the crow's depredations may be lessened or entirely pre- 

 vented by protective measures, while in its preying on insects it does 

 work that can ill be spared. An overabundance of these birds is not 

 to the best interests of the farmer, but, on the other hand, extermina- 

 tion of the crow would result in taking away a most effective enemy 

 of certain insect pests. Consequently the instituting of control meas- 

 ures is justifiable locally where the birds are taking more than a fair 

 share of the crops in return for good services rendered, while in other 

 sections where crows occur in normal numbers they may better be 

 allowed to exist unmolested. 



PROTECTION OF CROPS AND POULTRY. 



FRIGHTENn^G DEVICES. 



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

 vices employed as "scarecrows." The time-honored straw-stuffed 

 human effigy is the one most frequently used, though often it fails to 

 accomplish its purpose. Various unusual objects, as pieces of shining 

 tin moving in the wind or glass bottles hung about fields, windmills 

 operating a noise-producing mechanism, newspapers placed on the 

 ground, twine stretched about and across fields from poles stationed 

 at intervals around them, as well as bodies of dead crows hung in 

 conspicuous places, have been successful in some instances. Poultry 

 yards especially have been protected from the ravages of crows by 

 strands of cord stretched' across at intervals and at a height of 6 or 8 



