Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-06-27
For the Freeman.
Letters on Natural History.
BY DR.. HIRAM A. CUTTING,

, THE CROW. (CorrWS Amcricanus.J
Feeling that our friend, the crow, wa
rather roughly handled in your paper
few weeks since, have mind to say
word about him. He pulls corn. VIII,
can doubt thatP He pulls wheat, too, bu
then, wheat is generally sown too thick
and so | do not hear much said agains
him by those who raise wheat. When h
has the young crows to feed he robs bird
nests, sometimes, which is decided,
against him; then he has slow, stated.
walk, and makes great deal of noise, es
pecially when they have parties. Thi
should be against him, as to disturb you
neighbors by unnecessary noise is no
right; but then he don't do it nights.
The above is n list of accusations
against the crow,as far us they are proved
Some say he this year pulls potatoes
which is late charge, and one l think
may prove him innocent Of. Before We
speak in his favor let us look at other o
our friends.
Every farmer likes Robin Redbreast, n!
it is known he destroys at least twenty
worms II day, which would be two thou
sand four hundred every season. But he
does not like an unchanged diet, and SC
takes the cherries when they are ripe; also
many small fruits that farmers don't like
to lose, yet they don't often kill him, fol
he don't rob other birds nests; he only
has disagreeable way of pushing his own
young out of the nest before they are able
to take care of themselves, and the cats,
hawks and owls get about half of them
but rs they are his own children l never
hear this complained Of We almost all
keep fowls, and feed them grain, too, for
their eggs, but they do have disagreeable
habit of scratching. We, however, make
the best of it, shut them up, or get along
some way, and preserve our fowls. If not
corn-led they catch some grasshoppers and
bugs, but their love for worms is greater,
and we arc never safe from their scratch
ing; but keep them still, and think them
profitable. We keep dogs, too, to drive
our cattle, and save the place of Il boy, yet
in our sober judgment we know they al
most always drive them the wrong way,
and are always guilty of some misdemean-
or yet they have hold upon our affoc-
tons, and we keep them still.
We all know rain to be needful-that we
cannot subsist, even, without it, yet we all
us well know that it frequently, as far as
our judgment goes, damages us very ma
terially-a thousand times more than
crows; vet we never wish that we never
had any rain. So it is with crows; while
they are great blessing, like other bene-
fetal birds, they sometimes injure us. Like
rain, they are sometimes not wanted; yet
like every other thing from the hand of
God, they have a purpose, and that pur-
pose, think, is greatly to the advantage
of man. a crows crop is capacious, and
their appetite enormous.
When was boy neighboring farmer
left his corn in hoeing time to take to HIM
self second wife. The crows seemed to
know it, and took to themselves his corn,
pulling nearly the whole of it while he
was away, The next day he hired me to
kill crows for him, and in the afternoon
from my ambush killed one of the largest
sinners. That l might show how many
corn.hills he had pulled, l cut open his
crop and looked over its contents. In it
were one hundred and twenty-six white
grubs and six kernels of corn, besides
other small worms. Think of the grass
roots destroyed by three thousand seven
hundred and eighty grubs, which at this
rate per day would be destroyed by one
crow, during the grub season. Hon Dan
iel Baldwin of your village tried the ex-
pertinent once. By putting out poison he
was enabled to kill all the crows in the
vicinity, and rs they lay about upon the
ground, others were kept away, and this
same grub injured the grass, where there
were no crows, to great extent; not
only that year, but for the next, also, as
the grass roots were badly damaged. 1t
is estimated that one crow kills, in worms
and caterpillars, grubs, etc., at least three
hundred per day. This for the season
would be thirty.six thousand insects iDiu-
rous to vegetation. Is this not help
Again, us general thing, he takes class
of insects not taken by other birds. Now,
AS we take some pains to protect our gar
dens from hens, our cherry trees from rob-
bins and ourselves from damage by rain,
let us protect also our cornfeldS from
crows. This can be easily done. Three
mirrors, costing fifteen cents each, will
protect an acre, if hung up by strings,
upon the field, so they will revolve. One
house for martins, erected on pole, in
the fall, anywhere about your cornfeld,
or in fact about your buildings, will keep
the Crows from the corn If the house is
erected in the spring you will not get any
birds, as rule, to build in it the first year.
Martins seem to think all the plowed
ground in the vicinity is theirs by right,
and they will not allow crow to intrude
upon it. They will not allow hawks
round, either; so they protect the hens
also. Pieces of tin will do good service
in cornlield, and line about the field
often protects. Feathers stuck in II pota-
to and hung up will keep them away as
well as dead crows, and some consider
this infallible. Plaster of Paris (sulphate
of lime) scattered upon the hills when it
first comes up is suspicious thing 10
them, and answers the purpose. They are,
however, sly, suspicious bird. yet given
to reasoning, and sometimes hunger will
make them dare almost anything. If you
keep a man in the field constantly to hoe
and protect it, until past danger, the crows