, 1890-06-18
SAVED BY THE CROWS.
rHEYwERE ONCE THE eENEFAcToRs
OF ASHMoRE GROVE.

~
There is one place in the world where
crovys, those old time enemies Of the
farmer, are the petted and spoiled dAr-
Hngs OF a whole district" said q man
with a good sized wsrt on his nose and
the air Of q substantial rural landowner.
+The locality I speak of is Ashmors
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 drovek
There seemed to be no end to them. Still
they came. and one could not take q step
before ones W door without hearing
the rasping, gutteral cry of these birdA-
"oSK GRAND MEEsTEcK."
Now the soil of Ashmore Grove and
al 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 Il the fertile soil and to the
abundance of corn. They believed that
the Grows were there just to eat up all
the grains Of COTE that were intrustsd to
mother earth at seed time, and that they
would again resume their robber work
about harvest time. That seemed quite q
natural superstition, didn't II, gentle
mem
well, it so happened that the farmers
Of Ashmore Grove finally lost all patience
with this crow infection War was do
clzred against them-war to the knife.
Acampaign Of determination was opened
mp 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
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 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
of. We had made, as the FrenchmRn
said, 'one grand meesteck.' For that
same year there came new plague over
us. The farmers began to notice a hith-
erto unknown sort OF weeyil, or worm.
This blamed little nuisance not only ap-
peared in masses all over, but it was soon
noticed that 1t ate up the roots of the
young corn plant, thereby destroying It
completely, and afterward 1t tackled
even the grass in the meadows and ate
that up. The damage done by this tiny
creature was u h~undredfold worse than
all the damage done by the crows. But
these two separate facts were Mt that
time not coupled by the farmers, who,
on the contrary, still continued TO kill on
all the crows they could see anywhere.
That summer, gentlemen, the yield OF
corn in Ashmore Grove a from sixty
TO ten bushels per acre, and that in spite
Of the fact hat the weather had been ex-
oeptionally favorable to the corn crop.
CORRECTING THEIR RRo
Just about this time people began to
reject a little bit. The consequence was
the conviction that the large influx Of
}rows in the spring had been solely due
TO the very appearance of this weevil,
which to the crows wa a dainty morsel,
Just as q Blue Point oyster 10 TO you or
me-. This conviction gained sdherents
very rapidly, and at last the farmers felt
30 mad at themselves for chasing away
O numbering all the crows-their best
fiends-that they could have Kicked
themselves. How to get the crows backr
That was now the conundrum. At last
q general meeting was held. Everybody
for twelve miles around Ashmore Grove
was there, and the resolution WA unsni-
mously carried to import as many thou
sands Of crows as could be got. A num-
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 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
TIL 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
placed In them was not disappointed.
Nert fall there was again a large corn
crop in AshInore Grove, and within Jour
years the yield bad 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 rightfully ascribed to
the circumstance that the weevils were
getting scarcer and scsrcer, 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
district-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 quare do in
venice. Chicago Herald
The New Discovery.
You rave heard your friends and neigh