, 1890-05-31
SAVED By TIE CROWS,
THEY WERE ONCE THE eENeFACToRs
OF ASHMoRE GROVE.

the Corn Crop-Ihe EdEAJ 1ouhty Ak
rieuIturaIIsts RectIfy = Mistake.
There is one place in the world where
crows, those old time enemies of the
farmer, are the petted and spoiled dar-
Iings Of a whole district" said a man
with a good sized wsrt on his nose and
the air of a substantial rural landowner.
THE locality / speak Of is Ashmore
Grove, in Edgar county, Ills, and the
surrounding country. About a 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 droves-
There seemed to be no end to them Still
they came, and one could o take a step
before ones own door without hearing
the rasping, gutteral cry Of these birds.
"'oSE GRAND MEEsTEcK."
Now 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 crows were there just to eat up all
the grains Of corr that were intrusted to
mother earth at seed time. and that they
would again resume their robber work
about harvest time. That seemed quite a
natural superstition, didn't it, gentle
mem
We'll, it so happened that the farmers
Of Ashmore Grove finally lost all patience
with this crow infection War was de
clAred against them-war TO the knife.
Acampaign of determination was opened
up against them. Men, ONE 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. AL sorts Of weapons were used.
not only shotguns and slu~ngshots, but
even BOWS and arrows, stones, fire, poison
and traps. Groups of trees on which
rows used to spend the night were
burned down. In fact it was a sort Of
st. Bartholomew's night for the crowso 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 off-badly
off. We had made, rs the F%renchnan
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 APP
peared in masses all over, but it was soon
noticed that it ate up the roots of the
young corn plant, thereby destroying it
completely, and afterward it tackled
ever the grass in the meadows and ate
that up. The damage done by this tiny
creature was a hundredfold worse than
all the damage done by the crows. But
these two separate facts were at that
time not coupled by the farmers, who,
IN 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 that in spite
Of the fact that the weather had been ex-
ceptionally favorable TO the corn crop.
CORRECTING THEIR ERROR.
Just about this time people began tC
reflect a little bit. The consequence wa,
the conviction hat the large influx oi
crows in the spring had been solely du,
to the very appearance Of this weevil
which TO the crows was a dainty morsel,
just as a Blue Point oyster is to you OF
me. This conviction gained adherents
very rapidly, and at last the farners felt
so mad at themselves for chasing away
or numbering all the crows-their best
friends-that they could have kicked
themselves. How TO get the crows back
That was now the conundrum. At last
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 row 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 a week the delegation returned 10 Ash.
more Grove with several thousand crows
At dusk these imprisoned birds were lei
loose. and as they did not fly far during
the night, they generally spent the hour
till dawn on the tops of neighboring trees
Next morning they took a good survey
of the land, found it to their liking, anC
concluded to stay. They at once wen
at it. digging up the little weevils by tn,
million and feasting on them. And n
once before, so this time as well.
Now crows arrived, thousands ant
thousands Of them. And the confidenc,
placed in them was not disappointed
Next fall there was again a large corr
crop in Ashmore Grove, and within foul
years the yield had come back to the OLE
fgure-sixty bushels per acre. And tn,
crow? Well, thousands of them stayet
there several seasons longer, but it wa
quite noticeable how their number wen
on decreasing steadily, and in the sam,
ratio at which the yield of corn becam,
annually larger and larger.
This fact was rightfully ascribed t.
the circumstance that the weevils wer,
getting scarcer and scarcer, and there
fore the supply of delicacies for the birt
wa gradually giving out, and their mail
reason for frequenting the neighborhoot
Of Ashmore Grove was also disappearing
But there are still enough crows in tina
district-thousands and thousands o
them They are the pets of everybody
They enjoy as much immunity agains
shotgun and trap and interference as tn
pigeons of st. Marks square do il
Venice. Chicago Herald.
Merit wins.