AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
377 
Alabama State Agricultural Society.— 
The first Annual Fair of this Society is to be 
held at Montgomery, October 23 to 26. To 
give an idea of the direction of Southern 
agriculture, we quote from the list of pre¬ 
mium crops : 
Upland cotton, pitcher, $20 ; lowland cot¬ 
ton, $20; pea vine hay, cup, $10; native 
grass hay, $10; foreign grass hay, $10; 
upland corn, pitcher, $25 ; lowland corn, 
$25; wheat, $15; rice, $15; oats, $10 ; rye, 
5; turnips, $10; ground peas or pindars, 
$5 ; field peas, $5 ; chewing tobacco, best 
box, $5; cigars, best box, $5 ; smoking to¬ 
bacco, best sample, $5. 
Premiums are offered not only on pure 
Devon, Durham, Ayrshire, and Alderny cat¬ 
tle, but also on grades. We notice that the 
premium on the best stock horse is only $20, 
while that on the best jack is $15. The 
best saddle and harness horses are given 
premiums of but $5, while that for the best 
single mule is $10. For sheep, Saxons and 
Merinos, the best pen, $10. 
Manufacturers of wool, silk, and cottons, 
are liberally encouraged; and we notice a 
peculiar feature—that the individual who 
contributes the largest amount to the funds 
of the Society is to be entitled to a $25 
pitcher. 
Fairfield County (Conn.) Agricultural 
Society. —This Society hold their fourteenth 
annual Fair and Cattle Show September 25 
to 28. All articles for competiton must be 
in before 4 o’clock on Tuesday, the first day 
of the exhibition. 
On Wednesday, the awarding committee 
meet at 10 A. M., and the visitors will be ad¬ 
mitted at 11. At 2 P. M., schools will be 
admitted free, and suitable addresses will be 
delivered. In the evening there will be pub¬ 
lic speaking, and a general conversational 
meeting of agriculturists. 
On Thursday, the Cattle show and ex¬ 
hibition of Poultry will take place on the 
grounds. At 3 o’clock there will be speak¬ 
ing in the tent, and in the evening an ad¬ 
dress will be delivered. 
On Friday, at 10 A. M., the plowing match 
occurs. At 2 P.M., the annual address will 
be given ; after which the premiums will be 
announced. 
A good band of music will be in attendance 
at the tent, and a good time is expected. 
A Large Fowl. —As the intensity of the 
“ hen fever ” has passed, and we are in the 
“sweating ” stage, it may be safe to suggest 
that the ideas of domesticated ostriches ; of 
eggs as large as pumpkins ; of selling poultry 
by the quarter, like beef; of using Shang¬ 
hais as Barnum uses his elephant, to plow 
with ; and even of being compelled to as¬ 
cend by a ladder to blow out their worthless 
brains—that all these ideas do not cover the 
extreme size of fowls. Old Burton, in his 
Anatomy of Melancholy, tells us of “ a great 
bird that laid an egg so big that, by chance 
tumbling out of the nest, it knocked down 
three hundred tall cedars, and, breaking as 
it fell, drowned 160 villagers. This bird 
stood up to its knees in the sea, and the sea 
was so deep that a hatchet would not fall to 
the bottom in seven years.” There is yet a 
wide margin for breeders. 
OUR CROW.—(Corvus Americanus.) 
This bird inhabits the eastern and more 
agricultural portions of the American conti¬ 
nent. It was at first supposed to be the 
European crow (Corvus Corone), and was 
classed as such by Wilson ; but is consid¬ 
ered by Audubon a distinct species. It is 
smaller than the European crow, and has a 
different voice and a peculiar shape of the 
tongue. It is gregarious, too, while Euro¬ 
pean crows live in pairs, like our hawks. 
It has also been mistaken for the raven, 
(Curvus Corax), which inhabits this continent 
from Hudson’s Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, 
and is a much larger bird, nesting in rocks 
and inaccessible crags, while the crow builds 
in trees. The two races do not occupy the 
same regions peaceably, the raven living 
more to the north and west, in the wilder 
portions of the country. The raven is 24 
inches in length, while the crow is only 16 
or 17. The spread wings of the raven meas¬ 
ure 48 inches, while those of the crow only 
from 35 to 37. 
With the rook of the Eastern continent 
(Corvus Frugilegus), our crow has also been 
confounded. He resembles the rook, in liv¬ 
ing mostly in communities, and in feeding 
on seeds and grain, but never, like that bird, 
chooses any part of buildings for a habita¬ 
tion or lives in trees near the haunts of men. 
He is larger than the rook, and does not dig 
with his bill for worms. 
Our crow, then, is, after all, no hybrid— 
no offshoot from any other race—but a gen¬ 
uine native American, the son of his own 
father. He holds the latter relation, too, in 
an especial sense, for his father took a share 
of the labors of incubation, helping to hatch 
him. He is omniverous, feeding on fruits, 
seeds, grubs, worms, and even on snakes, 
frogs, lizards, and mice. He does not choose 
carrion, but prefers his food fresh, and takes 
it tainted only from necessity—his taste in 
this respect being very much like that of 
barn-yard fowls. He never pecks out the 
eyes of weak animals, after the manner of 
European crows, or feeds on any live ani¬ 
mal larger than a worm. His weapon is 
his bill, and he uses it as adroitly as a 
Frenchman does a rapier. 
When a boy, we had a tame specimen of 
this bird. He was obtained when leaving 
the nest, and kept for a few days in a cage, 
after which the feathers of one wing were 
clipped, and he was allowed to run about. 
Ralph, as he was called, soon became very 
tame, hopping around and even lighting on 
the arm or shoulder, though not easily 
caught, as he preferred not to be handled. 
The feathers of the short wing soon grew 
out, so that he fie tv about the village where- 
ever he pleased. He took up his residence 
in a large English cherry tree, near the 
house, to which he retired at night, and to 
a cavity in which he carried and hid, at 
different times, a piece of soap, the colored 
woman’s thimble, one of the tips from the 
carriage-top, and other articles. On one 
occasion he stole a cake of curds from the 
buttery window and buried it. When we 
were digging it up, he remonstrated by flut¬ 
tering around, cawing and pretending to bite. 
But Ralph liked best to join in our sports 
at the mimic saw-mill we were building. 
To show his skill as a carpenter, he would 
hold a piece of pine shingle with one foot, 
and bringing down his bill, strike between 
his toes so powerfully as to perforate the 
wood at a single blow. When the mill was 
finished, he delighted in seeing it run. If 
the saw was not moving, he would some¬ 
times attempt to set it in motion by lifting 
at it with his bill. During the summer the 
little mill was frequently set running in an 
unaccountable way, and the suspicion that 
rested on neighboring boys was only relieved 
by detecting Ralph in the act of raising the 
gate. Though he frequently set the mill 
going for his own amusement, he was never 
known to stop it, so that a new fastening 
was required to elude his ingenuity. This 
crow had not more than one or two vocal 
notes, so that if his tongue had been cut, 
after the manner that is commonly supposed 
to confer the power of articulations, his vo¬ 
cal powers must yet have been very limited. 
His intelligence was such, that he distin¬ 
guished readily between different members 
of the family, being the special pet of a 
younger brother. At first he seemed dis 
posed to be courteous to the hens, and to 
take food with them, but at this they made 
such an ado that he soon gave it up. He 
never caught chickens, however, nor stole 
eggs : transfixing them at a blow, and car¬ 
rying them on his bill, as the European crow 
is said to do. He never showed any dispo¬ 
sition to join his relations in the woods, al¬ 
though he might have become inclined to as 
he grew older. Poor fellow ! he extended 
his excursion one day beyond his acquaint¬ 
ance, and lighting on the roof of a house, 
was taken by a stupid rustic for a wild crow 
and shot. 
Audubon, at the time of writing his great 
work, had never seen a domesticated speci¬ 
men of this bird. 
Wilson says that, when tamed, it becomes 
very much attached to its master, and even 
opens doors by the latch. He tells of a 
gentleman, residing on the Delaware River, 
who had a tame one, and missing it, suposed 
it had been killed. Eleven months after¬ 
wards, while entering a boat with some 
friends, a flock of crows flew over, one of 
which, leaving its fellows, came down and 
lit upon his shoulder. He recognized the 
bird as his former pet; but it avoided all at¬ 
tempts at capture, and in a few minutes flew 
away to rejoin the flock. He never saw it 
again. 
The American crow breeds in April or 
May, and it is at this time that, stimulated 
by the necessity of providing for the mother 
of his family and his offspring, he is so de¬ 
structive to the newly planted corn. The 
insects and reptiles on which he feeds a 
month later, have not yet crawled out; there 
are no fruits or seeds to be obtained, and so 
he pulls the young corn for the grain at its 
root. When on these foraging expeditions 
crows do not go in flocks, but in companies 
