Mr. Pratt stated that he had used coal tar on his seed corn for five or six years, and had never a spear pulled by the crows. Dr. Riggs never had known a crow to touch corn after it got to the second tier of leaves. Mr. Lockwood said crows would sample a whole field of corn to find corn not tarred. Mr. Pratt recommended to pour boiling water on the corn before applying the tar. A large tablespoonful of tar will color a pail of water.
According to Dr. Riggs, the hot mixture with the corn must be stirred continually; if not, the life of the corn will be killed and germination prevented. It may be poured on very hot, if the stirring is kept up and too much tar is not used. If the water is hot it will dissolve the tar, and as it is poured on it will coat every kernel of corn. If the water is allowed to stand upon the corn any great length of time, the chit of the corn will be damaged. The liquid should be poured off and the corn allowed to cool immediately after a good stirring.
Mr. Gold had known of crows pulling corn after the second hoeing, when the scare-crows had been removed from the field. The corn thus pulled had reached pretty good size. This pulling must have been done from sheer malice on the part of the crows.
Mr. Ayer was inclined to befriend the crow. For five years he had planted from eight to twelve acres of corn each year and had not lost twenty hills by crows. He does not use tar, but does not allow himself to go out of a newly-planted cornfield without first stretching a string around it on high poles and also providing a wind-mill with a little rattle box on it to make a noise. With him this practice keeps the crows away.
Mr. Goodwin thought crows were scavengers of the forests and did good service in destroying the worms, grubs, and insects that preyed upon our trees. He had raised some forty crops of corn, and whenever he had thoroughly twined it at the time of planting, crows did not pull it up. In damp spots, during the wet time and after his twine was down, he had known crows to pull up corn that was seven or eight inches high.
Respecting crows as insect eaters, Prof. Stearns admitted that they did devour insects; he had seen them eat insects on pear trees. Tame crows at his home had been watched while eating insects, yet a crow will eat corn a great deal quicker than he will eat insects.--Boston Cultivator.
THE PRAYING MANTIS AND ITS ALLIES.
On examining the strange forms shown in the accompanying engraving, many persons would suppose they were looking at exotic insects. Although this is true for many species of this group, which are indigenous to warm countries, and reach at the most only the southern temperate zone, yet there are certain of these insects that are beginning to be found in France, to the south of the Loire, and that are always too rare, since, being exclusively feeders on living prey, they prove useful aids to us.