New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1896-05-13
GIREk SHOT.


GREAT stio
mt n sIAaxl .. d rlae Cold HIsd
| Best the Gum.
It was on . California ranch in early
spriingtima John, the cook, aged about
II years had offered to slay several
thousands Of the myriads Of blackbirds
which were swarming around the ranch
IL Brown, the boss, would furnish pow
der and shot. The birds were SO numer-
GUS that the wheat had to be covered as
soon as possible after sowing r this
was not done, the ground would be
cleaned as free Of the seed in very
short time as if it had never been seed
/ ed Under these conditions Brown was
not slow in furnishing the necessary
ammunition
The next morning after the breakfast
dishes were cleared up John made his
appearance in the field, armed with the
old muzzle loading, double barreled
shotgun After slowing away liberal
| amount of ammunition in the old gun
he took deliberate aim at a place where
| the blackbirds seemed to be most nu-
merous on the newly seeded ground
| With a tremendous report the old gun
belched forth its deadly charge. When
John recovered from the recoil and the
smoke had cleared up, he was surprised
and delighted at the havoc he had
caused in the swarm Of birds. Perhaps
40 Or SO lay dead on the ground, and
others dropped every few yards as the
birds flew toward clump of trees about
$50 yards distant.
Loading the barrel which had been
discharged, John proceeded toward the
trees, intent on securing another shot,
but as he drew nearer he was surprised
to see the birds still dropping to the
ground. When within about 80 yards Of
the trees, he stopped, undecided as to
whether he had better fire again or not,
for it seemed as though he must have
wounded all of the birds, so continuous
ly were they falling. As the birds did
not seem to be alarmed by his presence,
he concluded to count the dead ones,
and find out how many he had killed
with one load Cautiously making his
way under the trees, he commenced
counting, and the birds kept falling.
After counting about 200 dead birds,
and seeing that they were still falling,
he commenced to feel a little suspi-
cious, and noticed that the birds were
acting in a very unusual manner up in
the tree.
''Ha, ha, HAP yelled Brown, who
| lo< %ol l. H., 4:
lance, unseen by John. Laughing until
he could scarcely walk, Brown approach
ed, and John, who was sure something
was wrong, demanded an explanation.
''Well," said Brown, II had just sown
about a peck of poisoned wheat when
you came out, and the poison COM
menced taking effect just after you
fired"
The boys all call him "Blackbird
John. FOREST and Stream.
The Bene1cent Crow.
If farmers would make study of nat
ural history and its bearing on their
property-the relation Of hawks to their
hencoops, for instance-there would be
] better paying crops.
The ''Year Book of the department
of agriculture tells about crow black.
birds and what they eat. About 2, 800
of their stomachs have been examined
and of these 2, 258 contained food. The
birds were killed in 26 states. Forty
eight per cent Of the food was animal,
48 per cent vegetable and per cent wat
mineral The blackbird has a variety Of
things it eats.
J THE animal food," says the report
CONSISTED CT insects, spiders, myria
pods (thousand legsl, crawfsh, earth
J worms, sowbugs, hair snakes, snails
} fishes, tree toads, salamanders (newts)
lizards, snakes, BIRDS eggs and MICE ,
| To these might have been added young
birds, fish cast up by the tide, minnows
caught while swimming in shallow
water and probably meat and carrion o:
various kinds. Most of the animal fooc
is, Of course, insects. These constitute
} 46 per cent of the total, the other PEI
cent being the larger things, like mice
, The animal food is taken mostly in thu
summer. In winter the food is mostl,
vegetable matter: The insects the birt
kills more than make up the damage h
does, especially as his nest robbing ap
, pears to be only an incidental habit no
/ often INDUCED in. A large flock of tn
birds. would, of course, destroy a lot O.
+ grain. Some $1,000 would eat abou
5000 pounds a day, but they would
, consume as many insects, which would
! more than destroy the amount the birt
, does.-New York Sun.
Blue Blood.
The ''American physician WIZ
makes some amazing medical or scien
, tific discovery about once week will
! undertaking regularity, and has long
since become an established Journalistic