Trouble With Crows

 Wherever there is an abundance of food, there will be an abundance of critters.  Such is the case on the farm I am working on. With planting corn comes the duty of killing crows. I decided to look in my new book for some old methods of keeping crows at bay.

 This excerpt comes from the book "The Southern Gardener and Receipt Book" by Phineas Thornton published in 1839.

 TO PREVENT CROWS FROM PULLING UP CORN

 Soak seed corn in a solution of Glauber salts, from

twenty-four to forty-eight hours before planting and 

no living animal, with the sense of taste will eat it. 

This method of preventing crows from destroying 

corn was accidentally discovered by John B. Swasey, 

Esq., of Meredith, N. H., several years since. He 

directed his hired man to soak a quantity of seed corn

preparatory to planting, in a solution of saltpetre. 

BY mistake Glauber salts were taken for nitre ; the

mistake was not discovered, until it was nearly all 

planted; the piece of ground was finished with dry

corn. The part of the piece planted with soaked 

corn remained undisturbed ; while the dry corn was 

nearly all destroyed by crows, blackbirds, and 

squirrels.  Page 269

Some Light Reading : Ten Acres Enough by Edmund Morris

 The first book I ever purchased about farming was recommend to me by Matthew Fennewald (who from here on out I will simply refer to as Matthew). Even though it is not a thick book I am still reading it, taking it slow and absorbing what I can from it. What struck me about the book was not so much the in depth knowledge of 1860s era farming that Mr. Morris gives as someone who lived in the time, but the enjoyment and fulfillment that he conveys through his writing.

 I was also struck by the way he speaks of his wife. In this day and age when people scream for equality and speak of the hardships of women of the past, Mr. Morris paints a very different picture of how a farm wife was treated in the 19th century speaking of her as a partner in the farm business and how often he would ask of her advice and how he valued her happiness above all things. In fact I find this sentiment to be common so far in the reading I have done of 19th century farming texts. History is never black and white.

 Moving on, I feel his knowledge of farming is very valuable to us going forward with our Living History Farm mindset. The idea at the beginning of getting away from the city life, living simple...sounds perfect.

 I would highly recommend picking up a copy of the book. A must have for any farmer.

 Purchase a copy here.
 For a cool old archive copy in PDF format copy click here.