198 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
very desirable lamb for the market. These 
have small bone, are readily fattened, and 
the black faces of the Southdown make them 
favorites in the stalls. A Cotswold on a Merino 
produces a larger lamb, but it is more bony. 
Water Pipe to a Cellar Tank. 
Mr. Chas. F. Greenawalt, Dauphin Co., 
Pa., sends us his method of conducting water 
be a hollow plug placed in the center. The 
bottom of my cellar is gravel, and the water 
soaks away as fast as necessary. There are 
bricks placed in the bottom of the tank upon 
which the crocks, etc., are set. At one end 
of the tank a marble slab is arranged so as to 
reach just above the water; this is con¬ 
venient for working butter, etc.” A stop¬ 
cock is placed in the pipe, near the pump, to 
turn the water off or on. The position of 
the pump as well as of the pipe and water 
tank is shown in the accompanying engrav¬ 
ing, made from the sketch sent by Mr. G. 
Crows and Scarecrows. 
Probably there is no point upon which a 
gathering of half a dozen farmers will have 
more positive opinions than as to the relations 
of the Crow to agriculture. It is likely that 
five of these will regard the bird as totally 
bad, while the minority of one will claim 
that he is all good. As usual the truth lies 
between the extremes. There is no doubt 
that the crow loves com, and knows that at 
the base of th6 tender shoot there is a soft, 
sweet kernel. But the black-coated bird is 
not altogether a vegetarian. The days in 
which he can pull young corn are few, but 
the larger part of the year he is really the 
friend of the farmer. One of the worst insect 
pests with which the farmer, fruit-grower, or 
other cultivator has to contend is, the “White 
Grub,” the larva of the “ May Beetle,” “ June 
Bug,” or “Dor-Bug.” It is as well estab¬ 
lished as any fact can be, that the crow is 
able to detect this grub while it is at work 
upon the roots of grass in meadows and lawns, 
and rm.ll find and grub it out. For this 
service alone, the crow should be everywhere 
not only spared, but encouraged. We are 
too apt to judge by appearances; when a 
crow is seen busy in a field, it is assumed 
that it is doing mischief, and by a constant 
warfare against, not only crows, but skunks, 
owls, and others that are hastily assumed to 
be wholly bad, the injurious insects, mice, 
etc., that do the faimer real harm have greatly 
increased. Shortly after corn is planted, the 
crows appear, and are destructive to young 
corn. Some assert that the crow pulls up 
the corn plant merely to get at the grub 
which would destroy it if the bird did not. 
How true this may be we do not know, but 
as the corn is destroyed in 
either case, it may be as well 
to let it go without help from 
the crow. The first impulse of 
the farmer, when he finds his 
com pulled up, is to shoot the 
crow. This we protest against, 
even admitting that the crow 
does mischief for a short time, 
it is too useful for the rest of 
the year to be thus cut down 
in active life. Let him live for 
the good he has done and may 
do. It is vastly better to beep 
the crows from pulling the 
young com, for two or three 
weeks, and allow them all the 
rest of the year to destroy bugs 
and beetles in astonishing 
numbers. The com may be 
protected by means of “scare¬ 
crows,” of which there are 
several very effective kinds. 
Crows are very keen, and are 
not easily fooled ; they quickly 
understand the ordinary “ dummy,” or straw 
man, which soon fails to be of service in the 
corn-field. It has no life, no motion, and 
makes no noise, and the crow soon learns 
this and comes and sits upon its outstretched 
arm, or pulls the corn vigorously at its feet. 
A dead crow, hung by a swinging cord to a 
long slender pole, is recommended as far bet¬ 
ter than a straw man, as it, in its apparent 
struggles to get away, appeals impressively 
to the living crow’s sense of caution. But the 
crow may not be at hand to be thus employ¬ 
ed, and if he were, the farmer cannot afford 
to kill it. Better than a dead crow is a glass 
bottle with the bottom knocked out, which 
may be done with an iron rod. The bottle 
is suspended to an elastic pole by a cord tied 
around its neck ; the end of the cord should 
extend downward into the bottle, and have a 
nail fastened to it and within the bottle, to 
serve as a clapper. If a piece of bright tin 
be attached to the cord extending below the 
bottomless end of the bottle, all the better. 
A slight breeze will cause the tin to whirl, 
and, in the motion, cast bright reflections 
rapidly in all directions, while the nail keeps 
up a rattling against the inside of the bottle. 
An artificial “ bird,” to be hung in the same 
manner, may be made from a piece of cork— 
from an out-door well 
to a milk tank in his 
cellar. He writes: “I 
use 1-incli galvanized 
iron pipe, and have it 
connected with the stock 
of the pump almost 
level with the spout. 
From this point the pipe 
runs down underground, 
through the wall, to the 
tank upon the cellar bot¬ 
tom. The waste pipe may WATER P1PB TO STJPPLT CELLAR TANK - 
one used in a pickle-jar—into which a number 
of large goose or chicken feathers are fas¬ 
tened so as to roughly imitate a dilapidated 
bird. A rough head may be carved and put 
on, to make the deception more complete. 
As this “bird” catches the wind, it will 
“fly ” here and there in a peculiar manner 
not at all enticing to the corn-loving crows. 
The engraving here presented shows one of 
the best devices for keeping crows at a safe 
distance, as it is full of changes of motion 
and strange sounds, all of which confuse and 
“scare” the crows. It is a frame mounted 
on a post with a wind-mill attachment. The 
rotary frame has cross-bars with wires run¬ 
ning between them, upon which bright bits 
of tin and highly colored cloths, etc., are 
fastened. As the vane revolves, it turns this 
frame, and the various pieces on the wires 
flash and flutter. Bells are hung beneath the 
upper bar of the affair, so that the revolv¬ 
ing frame will hit them. A scarecrow of this 
kind will do more good than many times 
its cost expended in twine, straw men, etc. 
A Home-made Drain Level. 
“A Reader,” Yirden, Ill., writes : “Iwished 
to get the grade for some tile drains, and 
made this device to get a uniform fall.”—The 
bottom of the level is a common fence board, 
16 feet long, with the lower edge dressed per¬ 
fectly smooth and straight. It is left six 
inches wide, for about one foot in the middle, 
and then runs narrower towards the ends, 
when it is 2'/a inches wide. Another piece of 
fencing-stuff, 3'/ 2 ft. long, is planed, and a line 
drawn down the exact center. The edges are 
ay 
... 
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A HOME-MADE 
DRAIN LEVEL. 
dressed down from a point 6 inches from the 
bottom, until it is 2 inches wide at the top. 
A circular hole is sawed out of the center of 
the bottom post, as indicated in the engrav¬ 
ing, for a plumb-bob to swing in. The plumb 
line is attached by inserting it in a kerf sawed 
in the top, and is prevented from violent 
swinging by a long, shallow, wire staple seen 
at b. This piece is then firmly fastened to 
the center of the long piece, being careful 
that the line m the center of the upright 
piece is exactly at right angles with the bot-’ 
tom of the straight edge of the long horizon¬ 
tal board. In order to secure this position 
against displacement, two pieces of inch 
board are firmly nailed on the long board, 
either side of the perpendicular board. Now, 
set the level so that the plumb-line shall hang 
in the middle of the “plumb-board,” from a 
to e, and the bottom is level. Put an inch 
block under one end of the level, and note 
with the point of an awl where the line falls 
at c, and you have the grade of one inch in 
16 feet. Determine the mark for a two-inch 
grade, etc., in the same way. This marking 
should be carefully done upon a perfectly 
level floor, as the value of the instrument 
will depend upon the accuracy of this. With 
the scale thus constructed, the instrument 
is ready to use in any place where it is de¬ 
sired to establish a level, or a definite grade. 
The Hired TSan.—Every farmer who 
has to employ help wishes to have a good 
