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The Scarecrow Story If you think endless days of dry weather are a farmer’s worst enemy, think again. Hungry birds have been a big problem ever since people first started growing food—and that’s a long time ago!
Scarecrows around the world Egyptians created the first so-called scarecrows. To keep their gardens intact, they trapped birds in nets hung over large wooden shapes. The unfortunate fate of the crows they caught? They were later cooked and eaten. Soon scarecrows started to resemble people. Farmers in Greece carved frightening human figures from trees to scare the birds away. Hoping for a good crop, they often placed a harvest tool called a sickle in one of the scarecrow’s hands. Then they added weapons to make them look even more menacing. Sometimes terrible smells helped scarecrows do their job. In Japan, farmers hung fish bones and rags from bamboo poles and set them on fire. P.U.! They called their scarecrows “kakashis”—the Japanese word for something stinks. In Germany, farmers sometimes put scarecrows in their fields as early as the end of winter. They hoped that the figure would scare away the cold weather and allow spring to come. Even now, people there dance in the fields to symbolize the start of a new season. In Britain, people jumped and waved their arms to frighten the birds. When there weren’t enough people to do the job, they would carve spooky faces out of turnips instead. Then sacks stuffed with straw were attached to poles to make arms and legs. Add the veggie head and voila—a scarecrow was born! But scarecrows weren’t only a European tradition. Native Americans also used many tricks to frighten feathered creatures. For instance, Zunis in the American Southwest put up cedar poles, stretching yucca plant strings across them like clotheslines. They hung cloth and skin strips that waved in the wind, and pieces of wood and metal that banged together. The noise from the clanging was enough to scare off the crows. So even though making them has become a fun Fall tradition, guess you could say scarecrows are really for the birds! |
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And
for almost as long, scarecrows have been standing guard over crops.
