The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-07-15
Feeding Instead Of Killing Crows

Probably ninety-nine out Of every
hundred farmer boys have been taught
that it was an imperative duty to shoot,
trap, or IN some other way XII every
crow possible This slaughter of the
crow did not originate with the present
generation, but was first prscticed by
the Puritans, when tbey discovered that
q mother crow liked softened or water
soaked corn with which 70 feed her
Young in the spring. Consequently the
average Yankee boy comes honestly TO
this hater of useful bird. or a. least
through hereditary descent. OF course,
we have no idea that anything that can
be said in these columns in favor Of the
crow can make an inbred hater If this
bird believe that the owner of such
glossy black feathers is not created ex-
pressly to torment the farmer, by pull
ing up his newly planted crops in the
spring.
The thousands of cutworms. white
CUBS, crickets, grssshoppers. and other
n0xious insects devoured by crows
during the year, reckon for nothing in
the estimation of the ordinary farmer
toward compromising him for the few
hills of corn occasionally destroyed In
spring Then, how many farmers ever
give the crow credit for preventing pes
thence in neighborhoods where it Is Ike
general practice of those whose cattle
die in winter TO haul the carcass out
into the back lot of woods. aud leave it
there to decay and pollute the air for
miles around The half-starved crows.
when let alone, will take what little
meat is left upon the bones Of the dead
animals, thereby becoming very useful
scavengers. and counteracting the re-
suits which are likely to follow the
neglect of the farmer to bury his dead
stock.
But, a. we have said. it is hard TO
eradicate the hereditary hatred of the
crow and il breaks out continually, and
frequently where we would least expect
it. The flock of crows that follow the
ploughman all day long, picking up
grubs from the newly turned furrow,
may lose some OF their number at night
in consequence of a suggestion from u
neighbor that crows have been known
to rob birds nests, which may be true
occasionally, but certainly cannot be a
common trait, or else the small birds
would have long since disappeared
from our fields and forests. We
have known localities where there
were enough crows living and
nesting within an area of fifty acres,
to have killed oil the small birds within
twenty miles square, and still the latter
seemed TO be as abundant and brought
fourth as many young during the season
as il there were no crows in the coun-
try. Too many birds of any kind may
under any circumstances become nui-
sance, but We have never known an in
stance of insectiverous kinds reaching
that point; consequently it is bad
policy to destroy them, especially while
noxious insects are on the increase. as
they undoubtedly are
In defiance of what we were taught
in our boyhood regarding the villain
Gus character of the crow. and the al
most universal belief that he is an
enemy to the husbandman. we treat
him with kindness whenever he chooses
to visit our grounds. When the time
arrives for putting in corn, we put up
no 'scarecrows.' but scatter soaked corn
over the field. allowing them to take
all they want. A few quarts of soft
corn, scattered every few days until the
growing crop is too large for the crows
to pull. is Il cheaper and better protec-
ton than any scarecrow; aud it cncour-
ages the crows to visit the fields for
worms. grubs aud noxious insects
later in the season. Ii all of our in
sectivorous birds were encouraged to
visit the grain fields and orchards.
there would be less occasion to fight
insect pests by more expensive methods.