Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-05
SOME MAINE lSCARECROWS
Yankee ingenuity Meet to Brighten Away
the Birds.
Cases Where Cruelty in Dealing With
the Fenthered PESTS Figured
. ~
Prominently.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
"a Penobscot county crow knows nigh
onto as much as a Maine Frenchfnan,
said Joel Richardson. n "A crow can count
as fur as seven, but he doesn't know eight
from eighteen. AS for the Frenchnan, he
can count up to the end of his fingers and
thumbs, after which he is as much lost as
a crow. But, howsomever, I'd a burned
sight ruther try to skeer a Frenchman
than a crow. Eff you creep behind
Frenchman and ye!l 'Mojee' at him he'll
jump outen his boots. Try the same thing
on crow and he will laugh at you from
tree when you are in the field, and then
come and hist all your corn soon as you
go away.
My idee is that as scarecrow is intend
ed to take the place of man he should be
made to look like a man. He should be
dressed better and have more style about
him. Jest look at it. Eff you want to dress
up man you take him to tailor and
have him measured and fitted to a suit
With a scarecrow it is right the other way.
You take any old suit parts of two or
three suits, and then hope to make 'em
into man by jamming and twisting old
straw out of shape to fit the old clothes. l
don't wonder the scarecrows get discour-
I'd do it myself.
Mr.. Richardson, who has fifty acres of
sweet corn growing for the cannery, says
the Santiago style of scarecrow, with
Rough Riders suit and wooden Winches-
ter rifle, which was so popular last year, is
no longer in fashion, the crows seeming to
demand something more gaudy than brown
hemlock garments decorated with brass
buttons. Among the sixteen temperate and
Industrious individuals who are on duty in
his field at present, he thinks natty little
college student, with high collar and orange
and black blazer, the most useful. The
crows seem to respect the field in that
nefghborhood and will not pull corn any
where near the student unless Sorely press
ed by hunger. The second best man in his
scarecroW company is fat and pompous
citizen with a blue cutaway coat and tall
white hat. This image has a broken glass
tunbler fastened to his shirt front to serve
for a diamond pin, and when the sun is
out and the wind blows, the prismatic rays
from the shattered glass flash half way
across the field, conveying terror to ell the
crows in the neighborhood. A figure of
Uncle Sam dressed in regulation style and
mounted aloft on a bicycle has proved a
complete failure, a fact which leads Mr..
Richardson to infer that crows are of the
dark-sknned Latin race, which has little
love for liberty of anything else except
corn and corn juices.
While the original creative faculty of con-
structing new and terrifying forms of
scarecrows seems to have departed from
the farmers of Maine for the season of
1893, the corn growers have made UP Cor
the loss along other lines. Many worthy
scarecrows have no doubt been without en-
ployment at time when work is generally
good, but this fact docs not imply that the
crows have had the full run of the fields
or that the corn crop will show a marked
shortage al harvest time June is the bust
est month of the yearefor the crows. The
young birds hatch late in May, and for the
next five weeks the parents are kept busy
hunting food for their helpless offspring.
ind
look at corn or any form of vegeta ble but
in hard times, when carrion is scarce and
insects overspry, the hungry birds are COM
PEELED to take anything that offers. Know
ing this fact, the farmers beginning to
encompass the ruin Of their ancient enc
mics by new and cruel ways.
Judson Hart of Holden put a barrel of
meat offal in his cornfed at planting time
mass was fun ofs creeping things and ga ve
forth smell which is perfume to the nos
trils of all crows Then he placed small
steel trap in the barrel and hitched it by a
long line to a stake in the center of his
cornfield. For the next week a sad crow
with trap attached to one foot circled
above his growing crop, uttering ptiful
cries. When the crow died from exhaus-
ton another one was caught and guarded
the fields from invasion until the corn was
too big to be pulled. After Mr.. Hart mad
caught one crow for sentinel duty he moved
the barrel away and set another trap,
which caught other crows that were let out
to the neighbors for 10 cents day. By
exercising a little Yankee cunning and a
good deal of cruelty Mr.. Hart made one
barrel of ofTal protect his fields and
rented crows enough to other farmers to
yield income of $500 The idea being
too good to keep he told all about it one
day in Bangor. 1t was a great success.
Before the people of Bangor would allow
Mr.. Hart to go home they took him before
the courts and compelled him to pay $50
and costs for cruelty to animals.
James Heagdn OF frankfort has sought
safety for his crops and death to crows by
utilizing the copper teeth of WORKOUT cat
tie cards. The tooth of cattle card is
like a wire hairpin that is bent to one side
in the middle until it forms right angle
After boiling corn IN sweetened water I'M
til it was soft, Heagan inserted one of
these crooked wires In every kernel and
then sOwed the grain along the rows in
the cultivated fields. The greedy crows
finding the corn soft and palatable, made a
dash for the grain, swallowing it until the
sharp wires stuck in their outlets. AS one
kernel Of corn enough to satisfy one
crow, and, as Heagan had sOwed nearly a
peck, it took but d few days to satiate all
the crows in town. The deceived and suf- |
fering birds flew about the fields for two or
three weeks before they died. In cases
where the wire had penetrated the vocal
organs the crows uttered strange whistles
and reed organ sounds that led bird stu
dents to believe Il new species of the genus
corvus had come to Maine Meantime the
birds grew weary of life and finally died
from starvation.
In Somerset county the farmers have
been soaking hard corn in wood alcohol UNI
til it was soft and feeding II to the crows
making them Intoxicated that they could
not fly away. Henry Dale ~f Newburg has
a tame horned owl that has made a repu-
tation for itself by robbng nests and catch
ing the old crows upon their roosts |
Though the owl is only year and a half
old, it has destroyed seventeen crows this
season and is still busy Mr.. Dale is
pleased TO see the crows go, but he is dis
gusted with his owl, because the bird in
sists upon eating every crow which he
brings home, preferring crow meat to beef
or good Penobscot river salmon.
Martinique Women Porters.