The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-03-10
CONSERVATION
-C0nSeTVatI0n-
CROWS MEAT
RECOMME
AS GOOD FOOD
Declared to Be Cleaner
Thank Chicken; Subject
to Less Disease.
BY WILLIAM F. COLLINS
Times Special Writer

BY WILLIAM F. COLLINS
Times Special Writer
Meat is the most expensive single
item of regular diet we buy and
but few of us can do without it.
The price Of it has finally developed
into a ratio of about ten steaks
equals one steer and there is moth
ing We can do about it so long as
we support the system of food dis
tribution through the legion Of mid
dlemen demanded by our complex
life. In depression times most Of
us see little of it.
In the last twenty-five years 7
have had what most persons would
consider a doubtful privilege; that
Of eating about every kind Of meat
in the Americas. The only kinds
that ever made me i'll were chicken
and pork.
Stefanson records in his book,
My -Four Years With the Eskimo"
the fact that the only men he had
on his expeditions who would not
eat any meat but beef and pork
were the illiterate deck hands and
that the men of higher intelligence,
especially those who had college
education were as keen to try out
raw seal and walrus as he.
Lizards Used as Food
In South and Central America a
staple article Of native diet is iguana
lizard, most horrible looking
saurian with a frill extending from
the nape of its neck to the end of
its tail and measuring from three to
six feet in length. 1t lives in trees
over swamp waters and is fairly
hard to take.
I have eaten him and consider
him delicious. Another article of
esteem on the upper Chagres is
spider monkey. My first meal Of
him led me to believe I was eating
lamb until I remembered that there
are no sheep in the jungles, not even
its nearest cousin, the llama.
The Russians have discovered
ostrich is prime food and the Kro-
ger stores in indianapolis stock Dia-
mond Back Rather snake meat at
$125 a can as a regular item for
those who want something.
Day Meat Eaten
My old Kickapoo friends in Ne
braska used to make snake dough-
nuts. A debOned snake of the proper
length provided stuffing for the core
of it and it was good, especially so
when we came to their camps from
the river after a swim. The iggo-
rote loves dog meat, it tastes like
round steak and is sWeeter, spaniel
steaks and collie outlets are sold
openly in the bazars of Haran-
Gual, Sumratra. The rock, a small
crow, is considered a great delicacy
in England.
The human race is omniverous
and eats three times or more a
day. have tried to view through
the eyes of some animal we love to
eat, just how we appear to him. 1t
is quite likely, that all he sees is
our horrible mouth lined with two
formidable rows of teeth.
Our reputation with all forms of
wild life can be quickly learned by
making one trip afield. Except for
a few of us who don't look hungry,
not even a small bird will stay in
our presence. We have shot and
killed and eaten about everything
that runs, creeps or flies and some
of these things are our most bene-
fetal friends; without them we
would all die from insect pests or
what not.
Grow Meat Like Squads
This leads us to a fact that I
would like to have included in the
two articles on the crow. One of
my friends told me this week that
out of curiosity, he and his family
had prepared four crows for the
family table.
The same curiosity that compelled
me to put by finger in the gears of
the old family cider press compelled
me to do the same thing.
The family reaction and my own
records the simple truth that we
have eaten nothing better The
meat is firm, slightly dark in color
and is favored like the breast of
a meadow lark or turtle dove. In
fact, SQUAD meat about describes it.
I called DR.. V. K. Harvey about
it. Ruling over our public health.
I really anticipated an injunction
against us so far as crows were
concerned, but to my surprise he
rather favored the idea by the
statement:
Grow meat can not be as I'M
clean as chicken meat. Crows are
not subject to avian tuberculosis.
Free From Disease
They are wild birds and survive
because they are we'll No one
nurses them through pips or yaws
or stomach worms or all the other
diseases of domestic fowl in order
to market them. If you can sur
mount your silly feeling of squeam-
ishness, there is no good reason why
crows should not be eaten"
The man who first ate an oyster
must have been a hero The neigh
bors probably watched him for days
expecting him to die. You sports
men who want to get rid Of the
crows, eat them. That will spell
their doom.
In another few years there will
be a license on him for the sport
and he will be propagated as pleas
ants are now.
He is bigger than a quail and
smaller than a pheasant and tastes
better than a mallard. I can't dis
cover any reason why he can't be
used for food unless you are too
old to hunt him or can't outwit
him if you do go out to hunt him.