, 1890-07-12
SAVED BY THE CROWS.
nHEYwERE ONCE THE BENEFAcToRs
OF AsHMoRE GROVE.

NAS WIN SANp k@ SoNhNy ~
rIculturalIsts R>etIfy = Mistake
There Is INC place in the world WHERE
crows, those old time enemies of the
farmer, are the petted and spoiled dAr-
lngs of a whole district" said a man
with a good sized wart on his nose and
the air Of a substantial rural landowner.
1.-The locality l speak Of Is Ashmcre
Grove, in Edgar county, Ills, and the
surrounding country. About = score of
years ago there were there no larger
number of crows than in other parts Of
the state. But at that time these birds
suddenly began to arrive in droyea
There seemed to be no end to them Still
they came, and one could not take a step
before ones W door without hearing
the rasping, gutteral cry Of these birds
"oNE GRAND MEEsTEcK."
Nov the soil of Ashmore Grove and
all around is heavy, fertile, black and
loamy. and the average yield per acre
was at that time about sixty bushels OF
corn The farmers naturally jumped to
the conclusion that this influx OF crows
was due to the fertile soil and to the
abundance Of corn. They believed that
the rows were there Just to eat up all
the grains of corn that were intrustsd to
mother earth at seed time, and that they
would again resume their robber worl
about harvest time. That seemed quite q
natural supposition, didn't 1t, gentle
msn?
well. it so happened that the farmers
of Ashmore Grove finally lost all patiencs
with this crow infection War was de-
clared against them-war to the knife
A campaign of determination was opened
up against them. Men, women and chill
dren all turned out, were divided into
little guerrilla bands of from four to ten,
and then the work of wholesale slaughter
began. All sorts of weapons were used,
not only shotguns and slungshots, but
ven bows n arrows, stones, fire. poison
and traps. Groups of trees on which
crows used to spend the night were
burned down. In fact it was a sort of
St Bartholomew night for the crows OF
Edgar county. The upshot was, OF
course. that mighty few crows remained
alive to tell the tale of how they had
been treated by the younger generation
The few that had been overlooked In
fAct sought pastures new.
But, gentlemen. we were of-badly
off. We had made. as the Frenchman
said. 'one grand meesteck-' For that
same year there came a new plague over
Us. The farmers began to notice a hith.
erto unknown sort of weevil, or worm.
This blamed little nuisance not only ap-
peared in masses all over, but 1t was soon
--A1-.1 aL.N "a - -. A.. ~
young corn plant, thereby destroying II
completely, and afterward 1t tackled
even the grass in the meadows and ate
that up. The damage don't by this tiny
creature wa n hundfedfold worse than
all the damage lone by the crows. But
these two separate facts were at that
time not coupled by the farmers, who,
On the contrary, still continued to kill of
all the crows they could see anywhere.
That summer, gentlemen, the yield OF
corn in Ashmore Grove sank from sixty
to ten bushels per acre. and hat in spite
of the fact that the weather had been ex-
ceptionally favorable to the corn crop.
THEIR ERROR.
Just about this time people began to
infect a little bit. The consequence was
the conviction that the large influx Of
}rows in tho spring had beer solely due
to the very appearance of this weevil,
which to the row was a dainty morsel,
just as a Blue Point oyster is to you or
me. This conviction gained adherentz
very rapidly, and at last the farmers felt
30 mad at themselves for chasing away
Oh numbering all the crows-their best
friends-that they could have kicked
thanaa1yaa HAw ~ nat tha rrnx.ra honly
That was now the conundrum. At last
a general meeting was held. Everybody
for twelve miles around Ashmore Grove
was there, and the resolution was unani-
mously carried to import as many thou
sands Of crows as could be got. A mum.
Der Of reliable men were selected for the
task.
They went down to the Wabash river
country, which is the richest in crows in
the whole world. and there they organ.
lied, with the help Of the resident farm.
ers, a grand still hunt for crows. With.
in q week the delegation returned to Ash.
more Grove with several thousand crows.
AT dusk these imprisoned birds were let
loose, and as they did not fly far during
the night, they generally spent the hours
till dawn on the tops of neighboring trees.
Next morning they took a good survey
Of the land, found it to their liking, and
concluded to stay. They at once went
at it, digging up the little weevils by the
million and feasting on them. And as
once before, so this time as well.
"Now crows arrived, thousands and
thousands of them. And the confidence
pla~ed in them was not disappointed
Next fall there was again a large corn
crop in Ashmore Grove, and within four
years the yield had come back to the old
~fgure-sixty bushels per acre. And the
crows? Well, thousands of them stayed
there several seasons longer, but it was
quite noticeable how their number went
on decreasing steadily, and in the same
ratio at which the yield of corn became
annually larger and larger.
This fact was r~ightfully ascribed to
the circumstance that the weevils were
getting scarcer and scarcer, and there
fore the supply of delicacies for the bird
was gradually giving out, and their main
reason for frequenting the neighborhood
of Ashmore Grove was also disappearing.
But there are still enough crows in tina
aistricu-thousands and thousands OF
them. They are the pets of everybody.
They enjoy as much immunity against
shotgun and trap and interference as the
pigeons of st. Marks square do IN
Venice. Chicago Herald.
Epoch.
The transition from long, lingering and
painful sickness to robust health marks
an epoch IN the life of the individual.
Such a remarkable event is treasured in