THE CROW AND ITS RELATION" TO MAN. 47 
large fields, especially when the actual cause of the injury has es- 
caped notice. 
Dr. S. D. Judd, relating his personal experience with corn-pull- 
ing crows, has said: 1 
The crow is by all odds the worst pilferer of the cornfield. * * * In 
1899 the replanting was more extensive than usual, requiring on the 39-acre 
field 1 bushel 1\ pecks, 46 per cent of the 3* bushels originally planted. This 
unusual ratio was probably caused by the failure of the cherry crop. 
L. E. Wilcox, of But'terfield, Ark., complains that — 
in this immediate neighborhood we have been overrun with crows. They have 
destroyed fully 10 per cent of the corn crop by picking into the ears during 
the roasting-ear stage, eating some ears nearly up; and rains afterwards 
rotted the rest of the ear.- (1912.) 
From New Jersey comes this account submitted by Justus von 
Lengerke : 
The damage done by crows to the little mountain farmer by pulling seed 
aud sprouting corn is considerable, and total crops have been ruined thereby, 
while others are badly damaged, necessitating a partial replanting, when 
the corn will mature at different periods. They also do some damage to corn 
when in the shock. (1911.) 
E. P. Robinson, of Packer, Conn., states that the crow does great 
damage by pulling jcorn when it first appears above ground and until 
it is 10 inches high, and again in August and September before cut- 
ting. He also says that it damages corn fully $5 an acre in eastern 
Connecticut each year, and that some fields are wholly destroyed. 
Drawing conclusions, then, from both stomach analysis and field 
observations, it is evident that the crow is accountable for consider- 
able direct damage to the corn crop. While careful interpretation 
of the results of laboratory investigation reveals the fact that this 
grain, taken when sprouting, when in the " roasting-ear " stage, or 
before harvest, forms a relatively small portion of the crow's annual 
supply of corn, such circumstances can not mitigate the evil done. 
Much may be done, however, by treating the seed grain with deter- 
rents to make the sprouting crop largely immune to attack; fright- 
ening devices help some while the grain is ripening (see p. 74) ; and 
prompt harvesting and proper housing of the grain will prevent 
much of the loss at present suffered, especially in some of the 
Southern States where corn in shocks frequently is left standing all 
winter, tempting provender for roving bands of underfed crows. 
OTHER GRAIN. 
Grain other than corn formed 12.70 per cent of the food of adult 
crows. Wheat, oats, and buckwheat constituted practically all of 
1 Judd, S. D., Birds of a Maryland Farm : Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agr., 
p. 65, 1902. 
