The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-04-17
Feeding Instead of Killing Crows.

Probably ninety nine out Of every
hundred farmer boys rave been laugh,
that 1t was an imperative duty TO shoot,
trap. or in some way Kill every crow
possible. This slaughter OF the crow
did not originate with the present
generation but was first praciiced by
the Puritans, when they discovered
that a mother crow liked softened or
water soaked corn with which To feed
her young In the Spring. Consequently
the average Yankee boy comes honestly
TO this hatred Of a useful bird, or at
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 of this bird believe that the
owner of such glossy black feathers is
not created expressly to torment the
farmer by pulling up his newly planted
corn in Spring.
The thousands of cutworms, white
grubs, crickets, g~rasshoppers, and
other noXious insects devoured by
crows during the year reckon for moth
ing In the estimation Of the ordinary
farmer toward compromising him for
the few hills of corn occasionally des-
troyed in spring. Then how MANY
farmers ever give the crow credit for
preventing pestilcnce in neighborhoods
where 1t Is the general practice of those
whose cattle die IN winter to haul the
carcass out into the back lot or woods:
and leave it there to decay and polute
the air for miles around 2 The half
Starva1 crnuS whom los olnpa Will tola
what little meat is left npon the bones
of the dead animals, thereby becoming
very useful ~scavengers, and counteract-
ing the results which are likely to fol
low the neglect of the farmer to bury
his dead stock.
But, as we nave said. it is difficult
to eradicate the hereditary hatred of the
% and it breaks out continually and
frequently where we would least ex-
pect it. The flock of crows that fol
low the plowman all the day long,
picking up grubs from the newly turn
ed burrows, may lose some of their
number at night to consequence of a
suggestion from a 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 all the small birds
within twenty miles square, and still
the latter seemed to be us abundant
and brought forth as many young dur
ing the ease as if there were no crows
in the country. Too many birds of any
kind may under certain circumstances
become a nuisance !; but we have never
known an instance of inSectiverous
kinds reaching that point, consequent
ly it is bad policy to destroy them, es-
pecially 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 enc
my of the husbandman, we treat him
with kindness whenever he chooses to
visit our grounds. When the time ar
rives for putting in earn, we put up no
''scarecrows," but scatter soaked corn
over the field allowing them to take
all they want. A few quartes of soft
corn, scattered every few days, until
the growing crop is too large for the
crows to pull, is a better and cheaper
protection than any scarecrow, and it
encourages the crows % visit the field
to hunt for worms, grubs, and a~oxious
insects later in the season. If ali of
our insectiverous birds were encouraged
to visit the grain fields and orchards, |
there would be less occasion to fight
Weekly SIN.