USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 5
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"In the consideration of a question of so great importance to the Illinois farmer as the relation of birds to farm economy, it is very necessary to make clear in the most direct manner possible, just how and why the farmer is to be benefited.
"The proper time to plant, seasonable weather during the growing season and also for the harvesting of crops, are, naturally, the most evident factors in successful farming.
"The old-fashioned, unprogressive farmer gave little thought to other and less noticeable handicaps, such as plant diseases and the myriads of insects that were the natural enemies of both his fruit and cereal crops. With the rapid increase in the value of farm lands, the competition for markets, and so forth, it has become absolutely neces- sary for a farmer to know every factor that may enter farm economy, or he fails to win out.
"The lax use of powers of observation is rapidly disappearing, and today our farmers are growing more and more alive to the fact that a knowledge of scientific farming is the only way to make 150 to 250 acres yield a profit.
"The agricultural colleges of many states, and the Federal Depart- ment of Agriculture, have for many years past conducted most exhaustive research as to the losses due to noxious insects, and the most effective means of curtailing these losses.
"We have, by cultivation and removal of forests, disturbed the nat- ural balance of nature. Some of the changes have been beneficial, others very harmful. We have made conditions extremely favorable for the rapid increase of certain noxious insects. Insect life increases at such an incredible rate that with no check of any kind everything green would soon disappear, and in a short time the land would be uninhabitable.
"On the other hand, it is a well known fact that certain of our most useful birds increase as a result of the settlement of land.
"Many birds are very tolerant of man, if reasonably protected and allowed to rear their young undisturbed.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
"In the earlier years of the settlement of the country there did not exist the same need for watchfulness that is necessary today.
"The problem of adequate food supply for the world is a part of the problem of the United States. One hundred years ago, very few men devoted even a small portion of their time to the study of insects in their relation to the food supply, or to the careful study of birds as the most effective check on the spreading of injurious insects. Today thousands of men and women are preparing earnestly for these very important studies, and the biological departments of our colleges and universities are of the most importance and popular in all parts of the United States.
"The Illinois Audubon Society was organized less than twenty years ago by a few very earnest bird lovers in Chicago. Their primary object was no doubt a humane desire to protect from destruction the many beautiful birds that came in such great numbers to the woodlands and parks in and around Chicago. The time has come when a much greater field is open for it and similar societies, for intelligent work for the protection of birds, not only for their beauty and wonderful songs, but as a vital factor in the economics of the country's food supply.
"The problem of the city bird lover is largely different from that of the farmer and the people of the smaller cities and villages.
"The larger cities, particularly Chicago, are flooded with thousands of immigrants, to whom the United States means all sorts of liberty. License to kill birds, we understand, is in some parts of southern Europe held out as a great inducement to prospective emigrants in connection with cheaper living. Cheap firearms are sold everywhere, and Sundays and holidays during the summer months see each day a veritable 'armed host' scouring the prairies and woodlands ready to kill anything that flies.
"Where transportation is cheap. these irresponsible shooters reach the farms, and not only trespass on the fields of growing grain, but shoot thousands of the farmers' best friends, the birds, or if no birds can be found, his domestic chickens, ducks or turkeys.
"The problems of Illinois are those of Iowa and the other adjoining prairie states.
"No crop raised hy the farmer is immune from insect foes. Many of these insects are so minute that they ordinarily escape the notice of the casual observer, yet the damage annually done on a single farm by these inconspicuous insects may run into large sums of money.
"The different aphides or plant lice, whose life cycle is only a few days, increase with such astounding rapidity that the figures startle.
1-2
FARMERS' FRIENDS (Insect Destroyers)
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
"These soft small insects. of which thousands could be held in one's hand, frequently cover the stems of their host plants completely.
"The greatest enemy of the different aphides is the warbler family, which numbers among the twenty-five or thirty varieties that visit us many of our smallest birds. The number of insects that a pair of these little birds will consume for a single meal is almost beyond compre- hension.
"To better understand the ability of birds to check insects, it is necessary to know something of their marvelous powers of digestion. Birds fill themselves to running over with either weed seeds or insects so that frequently they are replete up to the bill. The process of diges- tion is so powerful and rapid that they can eat almost without stopping, many birds consuming an amount of food each day equal to about one- third of their own weight.
"The temperature of birds and their circulation is much greater than that of other animals, consequently it is largely a matter of fuel enough to keep the machinery going properly.
"Much painstaking work has been done recently in the State of Massachusetts in order to ascertain the effect that wild birds have on the awful insect pests which have become so serious a problem in that State.
"While the conditions in Illinois are vastly different from those in Massachusetts, the results of the investigation should be of great interest to Illinois farmers.
"It has been proven that almost without exception all birds have a good balance to their credit over and above the damage they do; that even such conspicuously aggressive birds as the bluejay, grackle and crow have a large credit in assisting to destroy both larvæ and adults of the gypsy and brown-tailed moths. Such birds as feed on fruits- robins, catbirds, cedar birds and others-also devour enough insect pests to have the balance in their favor.
"Many birds are peculiarly adapted to attend certain insects, and. the birds have been very happily alluded to by one writer as the police of the orchard and garden.
"The seed-eating birds, which include the sparrows and finches, destroy weeds by the million. Three mourning doves' stomachs con- tained by actual count a total of 23,100 weed seeds, consumed at one meal.
"All of the thrush family, of which the robin and bluebird are the best known members, are valuable insect destroyers. The flycatchers, headed by the kingbird and phoebe, and containing about eighty nearly related species, the swallows, martins, night hawks and chimneyswifts, are policemen of the air.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
"The towhee and many sparrows forage on the ground; the nut- hatches, woodpeckers and brown creepers take care of the trunk and branches; and the warblers and vireos examine the leaves and buds. The entire tree or shrub is thoroughly guarded. Out in the open, the meadow lark, bobolink, bobwhite, prairie chicken and many others keep tab on grasshoppers, crickets and myriads of other insects. No insect family escapes; it has an ardent, relentless foe in some bird.
"Now, what is your duty to your bird friends? Make your premises attractive. Furnish bird boxes or nests ; feed the birds in winter ; exter- minate stray cats; plant vines and shrubbery bearing fruits agreeable to birds; help to legislate against shooting; train the small boy to respect and love the birds and not to collect birds' eggs; teach him also to shoot with a field or opera glass. If a bird helps itself to a little of your fruit, before destroying the bird look up its record and see what insects he preys upon.
"Observe closely the birds at nesting time and note the tireless energy with which the young birds eat, and then do a little calculating by multiplying the number of times fed by the insects fed at a meal.
"Read literature on the subject of bird conservation. Result: Sure and lasting conversion to the side of the birds.
"Scientific men look with alarm at the rapidly decreasing bird popu- lation. The rapid increase of population, encroaching more and more on the nesting places, lessens the available woodland and prairie where the birds may nest and not be disturbed.
"Intelligent planting of shrubbery and vines along roadsides, as is contemplated by the Lincoln Highway movement, will in part overcome this condition.
"Concerted efforts by states and at Washington for better bird pro- tection, the education of all classes as to the beneficial part the bird has in our daily life, vigorous prosecution for violation of our present game laws, the taxing of cats, the encouragement of organizations for bird study-all these are necessary and important features of the growing intelligent effort for bird conservation.
"See that some one attends to the purchasing of good bird books for your public library ; offer prizes to your children for best observations or well written papers about birds, their habits and usefulness-these papers, or the best of them, to be published in your local paper.
"There is no reason why, in this tremendous State, a powerful and concerted effort should not be made for bird conservation and protection which would place the State of Illinois in the first rank in the Union for such work.
"Nowhere in the entire United States is there a greater and more
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
interesting bird migration, both spring and fall, than in this State. The State's length gives it a wonderfully interesting plant life and variety of climate. This, in part, explains its variety of bird life.
"A very small sum as an individual contribution, if given by enough people, would maintain a paid expert whose duty might be that of State ornithologist.
"There is a man in Massachusetts who gives his entire time and energy to this very important work, and whose book, 'Useful Birds and Their Protection,' is the last word in bird conservation."
CEREALS SUPPLANT FRUITS
The friable soil and the equable climate of Champaign County are adapted to the raising of fruits, and its horticultural society has been maintained for many years. Despite the advantages of soil and cli- mate and the best efforts of the birds, however, the insect pest has been most aggressive of late years, and the cereals have almost superseded the fruits. In early times that great drawback was little known in the county or the State, and before the year 1853 the planting of orchards in the county had become quite common. Apples were the favorite fruit and the Milam the favorite variety. Peaches were also abundantly grown, while the smaller fruits flourished in their wild state. Thickets of plums grew along the margins of the timber belts and in some of the groves, and wild blackberries and strawberries in the denser woods. But these conditions are now almost things of the past, although there still remain striking evidences of what may be done in horticul- ture with extreme care and large means in the wonderful Dunlap orchards at Savoy. As early as 1858 M. L. Dunlap settled at Rural Home, planted his first orchards, set out his nurseries and protected all by belts of forest trees, and now sends out his luscious apples by the ton, and resides in a country palace which is world-famed. But his is the notable exception to the general rule that other branches of agriculture have supplanted horticulture in Champaign County.
HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IN THE COUNTY
In 1870 the most complete account of the development of the horti- cultural interests of the county was written by H. J. Dunlap, now of Kankakee, Illinois, but for many years secretary of the County Agricul- tural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association. It is as follows:
"The first orchard planting of which I have been able to obtain any information was done about the year 1838 by William Sadorus, in
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
the timber near the southwest corner of the county, now called Sadorus' Grove. It was made of fifty Milam sprouts obtained near Terre Haute, Indiana, eighty miles distant, and afterwards extended by planting 150 more of the same sort. These trees commenced to bear in 1842, four years after planting, and continued to produce large annual crops until 1854 or 1855, since which time there have been several failures, and many of these trees are now dead or dying. Several years after the orchard was planted some of the trees were grafted over to Vandevere Pippin, Yellow Bellflower, Roxbury Russet, etc. Some of these varie- ties have very good quality. The Roxbury Russet does not bear large crops, and is not a very good keeper. This orchard is in a cove in the timber, protected on the south, west and north. Mr. Sadorus is still living, and takes quite an interest in horticulture.
"Many other orchards were set out in this neighborhood from the sprouts produced from these Milams. The only valuable apple that was planted seems to have been the Milam.
"Several years after Mr. Sadorus' planting, orchards were set at or near Big Grove, near Urbana, by James T. Roe, Robert Brownfield, - Fielding, Martin Rhinehart, James Clemens, William Robert and others. James T. Roe had a small nursery which consisted principally of Milams. Mr. Brownfield procured 100 trees from Kentucky, most Milam, Winter Wine and Yellow Bellflower, which continue healthy and bear good crops.
"Martin Rhinehart's orchard consisted of Bellflowers, Vandevere Pippin, Seek-no-farther, Winter Wine, Fall Pippin, Pound Sweet and Pumpkin Sweet. Mr. Brownfield now owns this orchard, also the one of 100 trees originally planted by him. Four years ago the first 100 trees yielded 400 bushels. This season both orchards had only 600 bushels. There had been no insects to diminish the yield of fruit until two years ago, when the coddling moth first made its appearance in numbers sufficient to destroy nearly the entire crop. Mr. Brownfield turned in his hogs to eat the fallen fruit, and thinks, had they been kept in it all the season, that he would have headed the moth, but as soon as the fruit was large enough to sell the hogs were removed. The fruit was not picked up every day, so that a sufficient number of worms escaped to injure the past season's crop, but not to as great an extent as the preceding one.
"Josh Trickle planted twelve seedling trees at an early day, some of which are now dead, others remaining thrifty and fruitful.
"Mr. Brownfield thinks the Green Winter Pippin his most valuable winter apple. The Rawles' Janet is one of the best keepers. Large Romanite was also planted quite extensively by the early settlers. The
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
principal varieties brought to market from the old orchards are Milam, Pennock, Vandevere Pippin, Yellow Bellflower, Rawles' Janet and Winesap.
"It is almost impossible to find a good eating apple in either Cham- paign or Urbana during fall or early winter except Milams; but Snow, Rambo, Porter and some others of the newer varieties begin to make their appearance from the later planted orchards. Of these there are quite a large number commencing to bear. Prominent among these are the orchards of M. L. and M. Dunlap, J. B. Phinney, C. F. Colum- bia, R. Allen and others.
"Until 1856 there had been no established nursery in the county, but several parties had kept small stocks sent from abroad to be sold here. Nearly all the trees prior to that time came from the Rochester nurseries, and were mostly Baldwins, Northern Spys, Russets, Green- ings, etc., nearly all of which are valueless on the prairie, although isolated instances occur where individual trees of these varieties, from some local cause, have done well.
"The Messrs. Curtis of Paris, Edgar County, L. Ellsworth & Co. of Naperville, DuPage County, and other Western nurserymen, furnished more or less trees. To their credit be it said more of them are better adapted to our climate and soil than those brought from the East. I suspect this to be more the result of accident than design, for fifteen or twenty years ago the subject of what varieties were best adapted to the West was but little understood, owing to the limited experience of the orchardists in the West. Now the thing is different, and there is no valid excuse for a man to plant trees that are not hardy, productive and valuable.
"In April, 1856, M. L. Dunlap established the first nursery for growing and selling trees, commencing by planting 120,000 grafts, comprising nearly 150 varieties. Owing to the extreme dryness of the season, nearly all the grafts failed to grow. Doubtless this was a bless- ing to the future purchasers of these trees, had they lived and grown, for in this list of varieties were nearly 100 that are unsuitable for Western orchards; but at that time they were untried, and, therefore, it was not possible to know their value. The writer has often sold 100 trees for an orchard in which were from sixty to seventy varieties, the purchaser wanting as many varieties as possible. Now the desire of most planters has been narrowed down to ten or fifteen well-known sorts, and a disposition manifested to let some one else experiment.
"Mr. Dunlap, intending to make fruit-growing a part of his busi- ness, planted an orchard of 1,500 trees, 500 of these being seedling, into which it was the intention to top-graft new and untried varieties. Some
SAMPLES OF HOME-GROWN CORN
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
of these have been grafted, others still remain. The first orchard was more of an experimental one than anything else, many varieties being then planted that the proprietor would not now allow to be set on his grounds, while others, new and untried, have proved valuable.
"Other nurseries soon sprung up, and tree planting was stimulated to a great extent; and had all the trees lived that have been planted in the county we should now be supplied with an abundance of fruit; but, as is usual (so far as my observation goes), not one in ten has even brought forth fruit.
"In the early planting of fruit trees, I have been unable to find that any pears, quinces, cherries or plums were planted, except the common Morello cherry; but of late years they have been extensively set out. The first cherry trees sold were, of course, from Rochester, and consisted of many thousands. I doubt if one tree ever bore a full crop, or else did it once and died. The principal variety now planted is the Early May (Richmond), of which hundreds of bushels are sent to the Chicago market from this station annually.
"Pear culture is yet in its infancy, but there is no good reason why it should not be as successful here as elsewhere. In the spring of 1865 the writer planted the first acre of strawberries in the county for market. The next season Mr. G. M. Rice set out five acres, Platt, Fuller & Earle twenty, G. D. Wicks three and several other parties smaller quan- tities. From that beginning of one acre five years ago has sprung up a large trade in this fruit, several thousand bushels being shipped from the country every season.
"In raising other small fruits not much is done, although the culture of raspberries, blackberries and grapes is extending, so that in two or three years the products from the present plantations will begin to make a perceptible impression on the markets.
"In my conversations with the old settlers I have often inquired if seedling appear to retain their vigor longer than grafted varieties, and have been told that out of a given number of trees by far the largest number of seedling give up the ghost first.
"It also appears strange that there should not be some old pear trees, but I can not hear of one more than twenty years old.
"The first May cherries of which I have any knowledge were planted fourteen years ago. They were on Mazzard, Mahaleb and Morello stocks. Those on Mazzard are years since dead and forgotten; some of the Morellos are still alive and bear good crops, although the annual cuttings they received in their early days when scions were scarce have sadly marred their beauty and thrifty look.
"Peaches were extensively grown, while the county was new and
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
before railroads brought in the curculio; but the winters of 1855-56 destroyed many trees, since which time, owing to the unfavorable sea- sons and curculio, not enough of this fruit has been raised for home use."
In 1877, or seven years after Mr. Dunlap's article was written, another authority in the county reviewed the horticultural situation which at that time was quite bright. He said: "We cannot close this article without at least a glance at the horticultural progress made during the past twenty years. Then there was not sufficient fruit grown in the county for home use. Great numbers of wagons came from the Wabash country every fall, laden with apples, mostly Milams, Vandi- vere Pippins and Pennsylvania Redstreaks. Now one seldom sees a specimen of either of the above-named, their places having been filled with varieties of Eastern and Northern origin. There are now thousands of barrels of apples and carloads of small fruit shipped from this county every year, and this industry may be said to rank next to wheat in its importance and value. In selecting a site for an orchard it is neces- sary to have all dry ground. Underdraining in an orchard is so much money thrown away. In two or three years the tree roots will fill the largest tile and entirely obstruct the flow of water. We should prefer to have a belt of some forest-trees on the south, west and north sides of an orchard, in order to break the force of the wind. A good hedge is also almost indispensable.
"For varieties for home use, where early bearing is required, we would recommend for summer, Red Astracan, Red June, Sweet Bough and Benoni; for autumn, Snow, Stanard, Rambo, Lowell and American Pearmain, which is not an early bearer, but is one of the most delicious apples on the list. For winter, Jonathan, Smith's Cider, Minkler, Wagoner, Ben Davis, Winesap, Rawles' Janet and Willow Twig.
"For market purposes we should plant not to exceed four varieties and they of winter fruit, viz .: Ben Davis, Winesap, Rawles' Janet and Willow Twig.
"There are a great many other good varieties, much better in quality than those named, but all possess some defect.
"Of pears, peaches, plums, cherries, etc., the nurserymen keep an assortment of well-known varieties, all of which are more or less profit- able."
AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES
Since the early '50s Champaign County has strongly supported every organization and interest which tended to develop its great agricultural resources and the abilities and enterprise of its farmers and horticul-
CLEANLY LIFE OF MODERN SWINE (CONCRETE WALLOWS)
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
turists. From the first there was a deep realization of the desirability of cooperation and education along these lines, both as a guarantee of future growth and a safeguard for continuous livelihood and prosperity. The result was that even during the early '50s, when Prof. Jonathan B. Turner of Jacksonville and others were urging the establishment of a State university, its basic idea was recognized as the encouragement of the broad and intelligent development of agriculture, and the farmers' clubs were solidly behind the movement. Some fifteen years afterward, when the Illinois Industrial University was incorporated and located at Urbana, that object was still uppermost. The president of the State Agricultural Society was perhaps its most influential trustee, and of its departments the agricultural was first in its publications.
AGRICULTURAL, HORTICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL ASSOCIATION
The oldest of these organizations in this section was the Champaign County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association, which was organized in 1870. Its constitution, as adopted October 8 of that year, reads thus :
Article I. The name of this association shall be "The Champaign County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association."
Art. II. The capital stock of this association shall not be less than fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars, and shall be divided into shares of fifty ($50) dollars each.
Art. III. The owner of one or more shares shall be a member of the association, but no member owning two or more shares shall be entitled to more than two votes.
Art. IV. The officers of this association shall consist of a president, one vice-president for each township in the county, secretary, treasurer and an executive committee made up of seven (7) stockholders, and such others as may be necessary.
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