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S-peaking Time ; 10 Minutes. 



0PEHI1J& Airi70UiJCEt-.fflHT; And now we turn to the Great-Oiit-of-Doors with Uncle Sam's 

 Naturalists. Today, the "bird men in the United States Biological Survey go into 

 a question "bothering a great many farmers as well as "bird lovers among the city 

 folks. They tell us what ybu can do with "birds that destroy farm crops. 



—ooOOOoo— 



All in all, farmers and "birds get along together pretty well. But here 

 and there some particular bird gets a little too plentiful, or develops too much 

 of an aDpetite for grain or fruit, and gives some trou"ble. 



Consider the crow. All told, crows do a'bout as much good as harm. They 

 destroy millions of grasshoppers, and caterpillars, and white gruhs, and May 

 "beetles, and other pests. But crov/s also have their "bad points. 



All of you know hov/ crov/s like corn. At times, they seem to take special 

 delight in follov/ing the rows in newly planted fields and pulling up the sprouting 

 seed. 



The farmer then gets hopping mad. You can't "blame him. And that isn't the 

 crow's only "bad ha'bit,. As many a farmer can tell you, crows damage or destroy 

 corn and other crops at other seasons, and eat frait — and, at times, even swoop 

 down into the poultry yard and snatch up a chicken and carry it off to their young. 



How can the farmer prevent such damage? Well, as I talked with W. L, McAtee 

 of the United States Biological Survey, I found that farmers prevent crow damage 

 in various ways. 



For example, he told me how farmers protect their seed grain at planting 

 time. Farmers in the North Atlantic States and in the Southeast often treat their 

 seed v/ith coal tar at the rate of a tablespoonful of coal tar to half a "bushel of 

 seed. In many cases, this seems to prevent corn-pulling. 



Other farmers have tried "'ori"bing the crov/s a "bit. They scatter grain 

 around over a field where the corn is just coming up. The crows naturally eat the 

 grain on top of the ground and leave the young shoots undisturbed. 



Then, too, farmers have tried any number of ways of scaring cro^vs. They 

 sometimes put up poles around over their fields, or around the poultry yard, and 

 stretch tv/ine from pole to pole. Again, they hang the body of a dead crow in some 

 prominent place in the field or near the poultry house. 



