Scarecrow

Annie Starke, Mary Adams ‘10
Food for Thought Seminar, Fall 2008

The scarecrow has been a familiar figure of the rural landscape for thousands of years—gracing not only the American countryside, but lands throughout Europe and many other countries of the world.  They serve as strong inspirations for many writers from Shakespeare to L. Frank Baum, and come alive in some of our most beloved movie productions (www.cheekwood.org). However, despite their famous raggedy- bodied fame, the scarecrow’s original history has remained ambiguous.  Although the initial date of the scarecrow’s creation still remains unclear, it is understood that their primary purpose was to thwart off hungry crop pests.  In fact, the earliest definition of a scarecrow was written in 1592 as, “That which frightens or is intended to frighten without doing physical harm; literally that which—scares away crows, hence the name scarecrow" (www.cheekwood.org).

The first historically documented scarecrows stood along the Nile River protecting Egyptian wheat crops (home.comcast.net). The Greeks also had scarecrows modeled after Greek gods such as Priapus, god of the vineyard, livestock, and gardens.  It is said in ancient mythology that Priapus sported a grotesquely large “club,” and because we consider Food for Thought to be an appropriately mannered course, we will leave it at that.  Greek statues honoring Priapus were raised throughout Greece, “not only in temples, but in the countryside where his large deformity served as a symbol of fertility” and as a method for pest control (www.grit.com). In the summer hemisphere, in the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala, “the decedents of Aztecs and ancient Maya placed crudely carved wooden hawks with outspread wings and glassy eyes atop posts to guard hilly milpas, fields used to grow maize, beans, and squash” (Neal, A. & Parker, A., 1969).

Japanese farmers crafted scarecrows, called kakashis (“something that smells badly”), which were crossed wooden poles festooned with old rags, meat, and fish bones (www.comcast.net). The farmers then set the kakashis on fire—thus producing a foul smelling smoke that deterred crop pests.  During the Middle Ages in Europe, farmers used live young boys as “crow scarers.”  This tactic was also used by Native Americans, who constructed a sheltered platform that was occupied by young tribe members acting as human scarecrows” (Neal, A. & Parker, A., 1969). But, with the population dwindling from plague, farmers began constructing scarecrows from animal skulls placed on top of long poles (www.cheekwood.org). It was believed that the scarecrows possessed magical powers that prevented pests and disease from harming their crops (www.comcast.net).

It was the early American colonists who created the modern looking scarecrow out of an erect wooden cross dressed with stuffed old clothing (www.history.org). American colonists referred to the Household Cyclopedia of General Information for recipes and practical guides for the home. Regarding pests in the farm, the 1881 Household Cyclopedia of General Information stated that crows became accustomed to wind powered machinery, rendering them useless in the long run. Instead, they suggested the presence of a scarecrow and musket, for "nothing strikes such terror into these sagacious animals as the sight of a fowling-piece and the explosion of gun powder, which they have known so often to be fatal to their race." (Hartshorne, H., 1881) Scarecrows were so crucial to the crop’s success that farmers would construct them “as soon as the farmer had planted his crops…to protect them from the furry varmints and flocks of feathered raiders that gathered to extract their annual tribute from this labors" (Neal, A. & Parker, A., 1969). Farmers constructed their scarecrows “of crossed sticks, old clothes, and any of the handy variety of odds and ends which accumulated around early farmhouses." (Neal, A. & Parker, A., 1969).

In Colonial and Federal America the scarecrow became more than a garden tool— it became a feature in well-known literature. Most notably, Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story Feathertop (1852) features a scarecrow brought to life by a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. The scarecrow believes he is a human, but comes to realize that he is controlled by the witch for evil purposes and thus, ends his own life (www.reference.com). Feathertop also offers a detailed description of a nineteenth century scarecrow. Mother Rigby, the scarecrow’s creator, used a broomstick as its backbone, and “As for its legs, the right was a hoe handle, and the left an undistinguished and miscellaneous stick from the woodpile. Its lungs, stomach, and other affairs of that kind were nothing better than a meal bag stuffed with straw” (Hawthorne, N., 1852). Instead of the burlap sack, the scarecrow’s head was “a somewhat withered and shriveled pumpkin, in which Mother Rigby cut two holes for the eyes and a slit for the mouth, leaving a bluish-colored knob in the middle to pass for a nose” (Hawthorne, N., 1852). Hawthorne’s scarecrow was outfitted in “an ancient plum-colored coat of London make… and “to match the coat there was a velvet waistcoat of very ample size” (Hawthorne, N., 1852).   Mother Rigby’s final details were “a pair of silk stockings” and “her dead husband's wig on the bare scalp of the pumpkin” (Hawthorne, N., 1852).  Such a dapper scarecrow is an ideal image for Hawthorne’s loved literary fiction; however, the practicality of Mother Rigby’s creation is up to debate. One must argue that a rotting pumpkin would attract pests rather than deter them, while worn clothes of “London make” would be subject to the weather’s wrath. In literary works such as Feathertop, scarecrows were established  “in the realm of American folklore” because the tale’s “unkempt vagabonds” exchanged their “disreputable garb for that of he scarecrow’s finer apparel” (Neal, A. & Parker, A., 1969).

While the literary world viewed the scarecrow as a well-dressed garden mascot, “the scarecrow remains essentially what it has always been, little more than a wooden stake set into the earth, barred with a cross arm at the appropriate height, and draped with the most decrepit cast-off garments. Anything beyond that is purely decoration” (Neal, A. & Parker, A., 1969). The scarecrow’s weathered appearance is because “constant exposure to the elements reduces their fragile forms, fragmenting them, softening their rugged features, and tearing away shreds of threadbare and flimsy garments” (Neal, A. & Parker, A., 1969).

The scarecrow of the 1812 Garden will be modeled after the traditional colonial scarecrow, which is commonly used today.  The scarecrow will be six feet tall and have an arm span of four feet.  He will be dressed as a traditional farmer in a hat, long-sleeved flannel shirt, and trousers.  Our materials include two long pieces of wood, hay, a bag or pillowcase for the head, string, and era-appropriate clothing.  Finishing touches cold include gardening gloves, a festive hat, and gardening tools.  The 1812 Garden scarecrow will stand as a mascot of our beautiful garden while scaring away small pests and blessing our humble crops with his ever standing presence.

 

Bibliography

Hartshorne, Henry. (1881). Household cyclopedia of general information. http://www.scribd.com/doc/87606/Household-Cyclopedia-of-1881

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Feathertop A Moralized Legend. Raleigh, N.C.: Alex Catalogue, 1996.

http://www.cheekwood.org/media/Scarecrows!.pdf

http://www.grit.com/blogs/Reign-of-the-Scarecrow.aspx?blogid=876

http://www.history.org/

http://home.comcast.net/~minelson/history_of_scarecrows.htm

http://www.reference.com/browse/scarecrow

Neal, Avon, and Ann Parker. Ephemeral Folk Figures: Scarecrows, Harvest Figures, and Snowmen. New York: C.N. Potter; distributed by Crown, 1969.