46 BULLETIN 621, II. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
A perusal of many replies to inquiries sent to various parts of the 
country in 1911 and 1912 shows some diversity of opinion even in 
restricted localities, but by a tabulation of the data under the various 
States a very good idea of opinions in the different parts of the 
country has been obtained. 
By far the severest criticism of the corn-eating proclivities of the 
crow comes from the Northeastern States, including Maine, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, 'Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and West Virginia. These States, according to the statistics 
of 1912, devoted about one twenty-fifth of their total area to the 
cultivation of corn. On the other hand, comparatively little com- 
plaint was heard from the farmers of the upper Mississippi Valley, 
in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas. Of these States Ohio, Indiana, 
and Wisconsin appear to have the greatest grievance against the 
crow, though even here, with the possible exception of Indiana, the 
consensus of opinion was that damage was not serious. In this part 
of the upper Mississippi River valley nearly one-sixth of the total 
area (or four times the ratio for the Northeastern States) was de- 
voted to corn. 
Along with these seemingly irreconcilable figures comes the fact 
that, notwithstanding the drains which the crow is supposed to make 
on the corn crop, the farmer of the Northeast produced nearly as 
many bushels to the acre as his western competitor. As the crow 
is practically as numerous over, much of this western area during 
spring and summer as in the Eastern States, one is compelled 
to look further for the cause of its being so much more unwelcome 
to the corn raisers of the East. A comparison of conditions preva- 
lent about the average cornfield of the East and the West may 
suggest the solution. The very fact that the ratio of the corn acre- 
age to the total area of the West is approximately four times that 
of the East indicates the existence of much larger fields. The com- 
parative scarcity of timber suitable for nesting sites in some sec- 
tions of this western country confines the crows during sprouting 
time to the vicinity of the limited wooded areas, leaving extensive 
corn lands wholly free from their attack, while in the East the 
smaller fields with the intervening wood lots produce conditions 
admirably adapted to the needs of these birds. Then, too, the exist- 
ence of more intensive farm operations on the smaller fields of the 
East accounts in large measure for the increased yield per acre, and 
at the same time gives reasons for the unfavorable opinion regard- 
ing this bird. Losses, though even slight, are likely to attract the 
attention of the assiduous cultivator of a small crop, while damage, 
oftentimes extensive, frequently will be overlooked by the owner of 
