Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-05-20
farmer's department.
Scare Crows.

have tried for years in succession all of the
nostrums to prevent birds from pulling, worms
from eating, and sleeps of various kinds to
stimulate its growth, and find that tarring the
seed makes it distaStcfu to birds they will
pull and eat but little but as to worms eat
ing it, they seem to relish it equally well The
sleeps to stimulate growth, rolling gypsum, &c,
amount to but little. You cannot make
enough adhere to the seed to make any pcrcep-
tible difference, and unless the soil and season
favor, the corn will not come so well as If plan
ted dry For instance, if you steep the seed,
and after planting it is very wet and cold, it
will not grow as well, or if it is very dry it will
not come as we'll tarring it will retard It's
termination in any case. For the last five
years have planted the seed dry, recently
handshecd from the cob.
For scare crows, the beS; know of is a few
crows shot and hung up in different parts of
the field by one leg, or bait and catch them
in steel traps. In my younger days, for years
these scarecrOwS were ample to keep OF BIRDS
Every Yankee farmer should have good gun
and ammunition, and know how TO use it
Find all the crows nests in your immediate
neighborhood, break up their nests, seize their
Young, and then is the time to shoot some Of
the old ones. | once secured sixteen in two
hours. Go over your cornfeld daily, and if
the crows have drawn any, be there the next
morning by three O'clock with your artillery
or the crows will be there before Won, and sa-
Lutte the first conner with cold lead from your
early morning gun, and If you do not succeed
in bagging him, he and his ueighDorS will come
to the conclusion that they had better let the
mans corn alone Another way Of keeping
crows from your cornlied is by twining -
String wool twine from stake to stake once in
fifteen rows, directly over the row. You can
cultivate the first time, and let it remain Do
the twining Immediately after planting and it
would be rare TO have crow light on the
field while the twne remains
Grows grow bold by the cry of their young
for food, and by man being slack and easy in
stiEct teaches them whose corn it will do to pull
The fields for which crows have so strong
taste, are generally shallow and halfplowed
less than half manurcd, bordercd around by
bushes, briers, and weeds, and enclosed by a
mere apology for a fence. Years ago one of
your peace men had field with one of these
ugly borders which always have great tendea-
cy to widen ut hoeing, none wanted TO hoe
the outside row the alteration between the
boys would finally be settled by the old man.
'' Let the devil take the outside row." aud in
few years he had the whole field
Should the above mentioned scarecrows fail
TO keep to crows from pulling the corn, soak
other corn in rum or whiskey and strychninc,
and scatter broadcast on the field They, like
the humans, will like the taste but as certain
as they eat of it they die. You WILL in most
of the liquor on SALE find enough strychnine,
without adding more, to do the work for the
crows. II. w. LESTER Rutland, Nt.-Coun-
try Gentleman.