Crop Protection: How .22 Shot Shells and a Scarecrow Saved My Corn Crop

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The grackle, an even greater scourge of newly planted corn than the infamous crow.
The grackle, an even greater scourge of newly planted corn than the infamous crow.
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The author regards his scarecrow and the  disturbing resemblance it bears to its creator.
The author regards his scarecrow and the  disturbing resemblance it bears to its creator.

So the crows and other feathered robbers made off with half your corn crop this spring before the plants had hardly even poked their little green heads out of the ground. Makes you wanna run out with grandpa’s blunderbuss and have at the rascals, doesn’t it? Or at the very least set up a scarecrow . . . except for the rumors you’ve heard about modern, sophisticated birds and their refusal to be frightened by such traditional devices.

Well, it’s too late to be of much help this year, but next time around you might want to combine both those impulses the way Harold Blaisdell does . . . by building yourself a scarecrow with some real authority.


Crows are usually thought of as the traditional enemies of corn-growing farmers, but I recently discovered that grackles–the so-called “boat-tail” variety–are even worse villains in this respect. There are more of them, for one thing . . . and they’re even bolder, for another.

Grackles follow the same devastating routine as that employed by crows. As soon as the tiny corn plants push above ground, the thieves waddle up one row and down the next, pulling the seedlings in meticulous succession and gobbling the kernels from which they sprouted. The first shoot-eating scoundrel quickly attracts others, and the all out gathering of the clan which swiftly follows can lay waste an entire planting in a very short time.

  • Published on Jul 1, 1973
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