Many are the Contrivances to fright the Rooks; _viz._ To dig an Hole in the Ground, and stick Feathers therein; to tear a Rook to Pieces, and lay them on divers Parts of the Field: This is sometimes effectual; but Kites or other Vermin soon carry away those Pieces. Hanging up of dead Rooks is of little Use; for the living will dig up the Wheat under the dead ones. A Gun is also of great Use for the Purpose; but unless the Field in Time of Danger be constantly attended, the Rooks will at one Time or other of the Day do their Work, and you may attend often, and yet to no Purpose; for they will do great Damage in your Absence. The only Remedy that I have found infallible is a Keeper (a Boy may serve very well) to attend from Morning until Night; when he sees Rooks either flying over the Field, or alighted in it, he halloos, and throws up his Hat, or a dead Rook, into the Air: upon which they immediately go off; and ’tis seldom that any one will alight there: They, finding there is no Rest for them, seek other Places for their Prey, wherein they can feed more undisturbed. This was the Expedient I made use of for preserving my present Crop: It succeeded so well, that in Sixscore Acres, I believe there is not Two-pence Damage done by the Rooks; but I had two Boys (one at Four-pence, and the other at Three-pence a Day) to attend them; because my Wheat is on Two Sides of my Farm; the whole Expence was about Twenty Shillings. The Damage I received by Rooks the last Year in a Field of Seventeen Acres, was more than would have, in this manner, preserved my whole Crops for Twenty Years running. I wish I could as easily defend my Wheat against Sheep, which are to me a more pernicious Vermin than the Rooks. But the Rooks do not molest Wheat that is planted before or a little after St. _Michael_; for then there remains Corn enough in the Fields, which is left at Harvest above-ground, that Rooks prefer always before Corn which must cost them the Labour of digging to find it. _Of Partitions._ I have now intirely left out the middle Row for Wheat, and keep only to the double Row, for the following Reasons. It makes the cleansing from Weeds more difficult, than when there is only a double Row. The Hand-hoe cannot give near so much Nourishment (_i. e._ pulverize so much Earth) in Two Seven-inch Partitions, as it can in One Ten-inch Partition. There is Four Inches less Earth to be pulveriz’d by the Horse-hoe from the Surface of a Ridge that has Two Seven-inch Partitions, than from a Ridge that hath One Ten-inch Partition. The Ridge must be almost twice as deep in Mould for the treble as for the double Row, or else the middle Row will be very weak and poor; and then, according to the Principles, the whole Ridge will be more exhausted, than by an equal Product produced by strong Plants.