TARRING CORN. 89 



His words are: "But as, in the summer of the year 1749, an immense 

 quantity of worms appeared on the meadows, which devoured the grass, 

 arid did great damage, the people have abated their enmity against the 

 maize thieves, for they thought they had observed that those birds 

 lived chiefly on these worms before the maize is ripe, and consequently 

 extirpated them, or at least prevented their spreading too much." 



It is to be presumed that such invasions of insects had a wholesome 

 effect in checking the too general slaughter of the birds, and it is prob- 

 able that thereafter the colonists contented themselves more largely 

 with efforts to frighten the birds away from their crops. 



It is unnecessary to describe the various methods resorted to. The 

 use of < scarecrows' was perhaps the most commou, but unless Crows 

 were less intelligent than at present this method could not have 

 been effective for any length of time. Small windmills, so adjusted as 

 to turn watchman's rattles or otherwise make loud noises, were often 

 used, and also benches of jingling tins and sheet iron, suspended from 

 poles and moved by the wind. Single Crows were shot and hung up as 

 a warning to the rest, and in some cases doubtless served the purpose 

 intended. One of the commonest means employed was to encircle each 

 field with a white string, supported at intervals on poles of various 

 heights, and, in case the field was large, crossing it several times with 

 the string. In many cases this simple measure was sufficient to keep 

 the Crows off altogether, doubtless because they suspected that the 

 string was part of a system of snares. This plan, somewhat modified, 

 is still used in many parts of the country, and is more or less effica- 

 cious. By crossing fields in two directions with strings, so as to form 

 a network, even though the meshes are many yards in diameter, com- 

 plete protection from Crows can be secured, but there are better ways — 

 ways requiring less time and expense. 



TARRING CORN. 



For many years it has been known that Crows, blackbirds, and bob- 

 olinks or rice birds dislike the flavor of tar of any kind, and in many 

 parts of the country advantage of this fact has been taken to prevent 

 the pulling of corn and other grain after planting. Each kernel of 

 seed grain is more or less conrpletely covered with tar, or some prepara- 

 tion of tar, so that the flavor is imparted to the kernel and is not lost 

 entirely for several weeks. In fact, it is found that in shoots of rice 

 which grow from seed thus treated the flavor of the tar can be detected 

 plainly until the green blades are 8 or 10 inches high and too strongly 

 rooted to be easily pulled up by birds. 



Just when and how this important discovery was made is not known, 

 but the practice of tarring seed corn before planting has been in com- 

 mon use in Maryland and Virginia for nearly or quite a century, and it 

 is rather remarkable that it has not been adopted in all parts of the 

 country where Crows are troublesome. The earliest reference to it, 

 so far as we know, occurs in Dr. John D. Godman's 'Rambles of a 



