The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-28
A GOOD WORD FOR THE CROW.
he Is Mighty Cute Bird. and It IEa':
Easy 70 Food HIN.


Farmer Lucius 8 Clark, Of North Abins-
ton township, is great friend Of crows.
He declares that the noisy, big birds do a
g2esS deal more good than harm on his
plaza and he never allows his sons TO rob
their nests, or 70 ehoot or trap them Con
seQueutly all the Crows thss nest In Farmer
Clsrk's woods every summer, and sail over
his brood acres at al seasons Of the year,
are much tanner than those that flock on
the farms Of sone of his nelghoors. Even
though he Is kind 70 his big family Of
crows, Farmer Clark says that the black
rascals have until this season been IN the
habit Of scratching up lots Of his corn es
soon as It was planted, and Of pulling up
lots more shortly after it had become nicely
sprouted But the cutwOrms and other
crawling things that the crows devoured
more than paid for the damage they did 10
the corn. and that was why he cherished
the glossy birds, he said
When corn planting time came Farmer
Clark thought he would see II he couldn't
make the Crows let the corn alone after it
had been planted. BE boiled lot Of tar
In a Large KEITH, dumped hiz seed corn
into It and kept stirring tina mass until
! each kernel was completely covered with q
coating Of ter, and after that he rolled the
corn In pu1veTized lime till it was white
He planted it the same day, and the crows
clswed few hills OF It UP and wers IN a
peck of trouble. for several hours. The
cunning fellows evidently couldn't make
out what the confounded stuff was, for
theydropped the kernels as though they
were red hot bits of metal and then few to
another part Of the field and tried other
hills.
The corn didn't taste right to any Of the
crows, and after they had sampled hills
here and there the whole flock met at q
back corner Of the lot and had a noisy dis
cgssion over the mystery. In the course
OF half an hour one of the crows sailed
away, ali GIFTED on hill. scratched into it
and suddenly started back TO where its
companions were sitting silently on the
fence, yelling out the information on the
way that it was the same nasty stuff as the
rest Then the whole flock jawed as tight
as they could Tor q minnie or SO, when
another crow sailed forth to 8 6iRerentsec-
zion of the field, tackled hill, took a ker-
lei IN It's bill. ejected it mighty quick and
fsw over TO the fence with the same dis
gushing report. For two hours the crows
took turns az investigating, finally came
70 the conclusion that they had been IN
mercifully fooled and went cawing away
70 the woods on the hillside, Farmer
Clark had watched them all the time, and
he declared that the crows let that field en-.
tirely alone from then on
IN another patch the men planted two
rows with corn that had not been coated
with tar and lime. The rows were ten
rods apart, and the cunning crows IN
earthed every hill in each row and gobbled
up every kernel of corn, but they didn' t
touch single hill of the intervening rows,
where the tarred corn was. Farmer Clark
said that their eye teeth had been cut In
the former field, and that the birds were
too sharp TO be led into the same painful
experience again Plain corn WIS planted
in the two rows the second time, and the
crows scratched it all up the next DAY.
Then the men put beans in the corn hills.
and the beans were not disturbed by the
/ black rascals.
Another strange thing about the be
havior of Farmer Clark's flock OF crows
was noticed By the watchful farmer when
the cultivatOr was run between the rows
of corn for the first time. IN the latter
field dozens Of crows followed the cuftiva-
tor and picked up hundreds Of cutwerns.
When the farm hand turned his horse
about the flock rose up and few 70 the
fence bat as soon as ne got well started on
MS way TO the other end Of the lot they
settled down a few rods behind him snd
resumed their work.-ccTanton pa Cor
New York Sun.