The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-05-07
A BIG COLONY OF CROWS.
HOW THEY WERE DRIVEN AWAY
AND THEN eoAxED BACK.
The Birds Having Vanished, Grubs
Increased - The Crows Brought
Back, Slaughter the Grubs.


Increased The Crows Brought
Back, slaughter the Grubs.
The crow is so universally looked upon
as a sort of yermin which no pains should
be spared to rid every community of,
that it will be hard for most people to
believe there is at least one spot where
he is not only made a welcome
visitor, but to which he was actually
coaxed and begged to return, Rfter hav.
ing been driven away by years of merci-
less persecution. That spot is the por-
tion of Edgar County, ILL.,, known as
Ashmore's Grove. Twenty years ago
there had never been many crows in that
vicinity, but one season about that time
they began to arrive in countless num-
bers. There seemed to be no end to their
coming. They occupied every piece of
woods for miles around, and it was esti-
mated that the colony contained not less
than 500, 600 of what the farmers sup
posed were winged marauders. 1t is
rich prairie land out there, and sixty
bushels of corn to the acre was not too
much to expect as an average yield.
Naturally, everybody believed that this
great army of crows had heard of that
garden spot, and had marched upon it to
devastate the newly planted fields, and
leave ruin and famine in their wake, so
men, women, and children organized in
systematic campaign against the black
destroyers. They were hunted in their
roosts, they were trapped, they were
poisoned, and they were even pursued by
fire, the torch being applied at night to
woods where they roasted, and the loca-
ton of which did not endanger other
property. Thousands of crows were
killed every night, but still the survivors
of the colony fingered in the locality and
swarmed upon the fields.
The farmers of Edgar County noticed
another new visitor that season. grub
that not only attacked the roots of the
young corn, but also played havoc with
the grass. The farmers bemoaned these
disastrous visitations greatly, for it never
occurred to them that the crow was
among them for any other purpose than
evil So the warefare on the crow was
carried on with merciless vigor, and the
next season there was a very decided de-
crease in the crow colony. 1t grew
smaller and smaller year by year, until
only few wild and struggling fiocks put
in an appearance.
During all this time the yield of corn
per acre had gradually decreased, and
the crow was credited with being the
principal cause of the loss. The grub
was still at work, but the farmers had no
idea that they were not able to handle
him. But the first season the crows
failed to appear the yield of corn was
smaller than it had ever been, and the
season was one of the most favorable for
corn in the history of the country. Some
of the farmers went to thinking. The
grub increased in numbers. The corn
crop kept on growing less and less, until
ten bushels to the acre was as big yield
as that rich prairie bottom would return
and the crows had not been permitted to
get another foothold in the region either.
Then the thinking farmers made up their
minds that the reasc ,the crows had put
in such large and sudden appearance
at tAshmore's Grove few years before was
that they had simply followed the wake of
the grubs, and had come to feed on that
irrepressible pest, and then the COM
munity felt like kicking itself clear out
of the State. They went to work to try
and get the crows back again. They
sent clear to the Wabash country, where
the biggest crow roost ON top of earth
is located, and had thousands of crows
captured and forwarded to them. These
were released at Ashmore's Grove, and
finding everything pleasant and peaceful
there the crows remained. More than
that, news of the situation must have
been communicated by these crows to
others, for in few weeks there were
more crows in that locality than had been
known for years. The next season some
thing like the old time colony took up
its quarters in the woods, and that fall
the biggest crop of corn that had been
known in the region for five years was
gathered. Nobody disturbed the crows,
and the man who would have dared to
molest one around Ashmore's Grove would
have been lynched. In four years that
prairie was raising sixty bushels to the
acre again, and the blue grass was back
to its old yield. As the corn crop in
creased the number of crows that made
their home thereabout decreased. That
was because they had lessened the grub
crop, SO that there was no use for so
large a force to work there, and they
went TO other fields of usefulness. But
there have always been enough crows
around Ashmore's to keep down the
grhbs, and what corn the big birds eat
by way of dessert is not half what the
farmers consider that they earn as
premium for the good they do. And
there is one thing certain; 1t won't be
we'll for any one who goes out into that
part of Edgar County and says hard
things against the crow.-Ne0 York Sun.