Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-05-23

The corn is in, and now under provi-
dence We are to strive for good crop;
which, if We have prepared the ground
reasonably well, and put on a fair coat of
manure, if we can keep the crows from
pulling it, and the cut worm and grub
leave it alone; if late and early fros,s re-
frain from visiting it; if it is thoroughly
hoed and the weather is favorable,
we shall be very likely to get it.
Now about the CROW.
We shall wait with some curiosity to see
il Dir. Cutting ranks him among the D." in
sccts injurious to vegetation We are
free to confess we have always done so
and 4 mischievous nuisance to boot. Here
is what correspondent of the NtV York
TriJunc says about him:
look upon the crow aS friend in
everything except in Partially for young
corn Even in this charitab'y believe
that his first desire is the grub or cut
worm, and the tender plant thus suffers
or is demolished sometimes unintcntion-
ally.
A healthy, able-bodied crow will no
doubt take in grub or cutworm, as occa-
sion requires, and destroy maryland so
they DO the nests of birds vastly more use
full in he same way than they are. 4
friend told Us Of seeing a single crow des-
troy three nests in single forenoon. We
looked through the above correspondents
article to see whether he had ever found
the crows putting back the corn when he
failed to find the cutworm or grub we
rather expected it-but he neglected to
mention it.
Bah. what's the use of writing bosh?
every man who ever saw q crow pull corn,
knows they will follow the rows rs well as
boy,and pull every spear till they can pick
off the kernel, and sometimes leave some
roots hanging, but their business there is
CORN But the same correspondent thinks
it might be desirable to prevent his we'll
meant, but rather careless service, and
tells how to keep them from the corn
patch, as follows
But the object Of this line is to acquaint
farmers with the simplest and most effect
i've remedy for keeping crows from mo-
testing growing corn, which is to spread
out dead crow or crows fiat on the
ground, placing small stones on the tip of
wings to keep them well expanded. Il
guarantee that no crow will alight on the
land anywhere near it. One crow to three
or four acres is sufficient.
A neighbor of ours tried that way and
they still came to look after cutworms,
and so he thought he would make the mat
ter sure, so caught young crow and hung
him up by one leg in the field to die by
starvation, and by his sad example, keep
the crows from looking for grubs; but they
came down and pulled corn right under
the young one and fed him with it, so that
experiment was failure.
Another correspondent who signs him
self Granger, tells us to save corn from
crows by saturating Or covering the seed
with coal tar, then stir in pllster or ashes
10 aid in dropping.
Well, ne have tried that way too, and
nice mess it was to drop. But it was as
much of SUI cess in keeping them from
pulling it, as was the beef's brine which II |
waggish old uncle told a ncighbor would
keep tee bugs from his cucumbers; for the
corn mostly didn't come up to be pulled,
but what did come, the crows First desire
for grubs " led him TO investigate as
thoroughly as if there had been no coal
tar about it. They did not eat the corn
they pulled, but being of an inquiring
turn of mind, would keep pulling it to see
if we were foolish enough 10 fix it all that
way, so the result was not much better for
crop.
But crows differ in different localities
here now is an item Of valuable infornla-
ton from the Yaubee concerning the nest
ing habits of the "animile;"
n stohtu INV ub ouNtNl Ills /
apples in a neighborhood where caterpi.
lars annually clean the trees, makes reply
in The Maine Farmer that in q remote
part Of his orchard a crow built nest, and
has reared brood during two or three
successive years, and that in that part of
the orchard he gathered fair crop of
fruit.
In our vicinity boy of ten years old
would laugh at the idea of II crows build
ing nest in an apple tree, and tell you
they generally chose hemock or some
other dense foliaged tree in the woods.
But how to keep them from corn, here
is way prescribed by Tribune cores
pendent which we publish from curiosity.
We have never seen it tried and don't
think it lawfully could be in Vermont.
Take peck or half bushel Of corn, soak
it in whiskey, all it will absorb, then drop
good many kernels on each hill. The re-
suit will be drunk crows" which you
can shoot, and their carcasses will be II