Washington County, Illinois - Chapter 8: Fa Usa and Flora, 1879

Chapter 8: Fa Usa and Flora

I Rh upon the subject of Natural history. In the development and growth of animal life, nature has, as in all things else, displayed much method and system. She has always issued her bulletins. In the history of animal creation, she has always advertised her plans. She had those plans in the beginning. Man may search and study the relics of the primeval ages, and he will find the programme was made out from the be¬ ginning ; that Nature did not unfold her plans, by degrees, as type after type of organic life made its advent into the world. Though Nature had her plans from the beginning; though the work was laid out; though in the economy of Infinite Wisdom, the performance of those plans, has been in strict accordance with the programme, man is continually surprised by the appearance in the animal creation of some new specimen of animal life. Man, with all his powers of mind, with all his penetration of thought, and all his learning, after centuries of vain endeavor to find odt the plans of Nature in the creation, and development of animal life, comes to the wise conclusion, that although those plans were laid and have existed immuta¬ bly from before the foundation of the world, that they can only be appre¬ hended by the ultimate results, as they are marked by each succeeding development.

One thing surpassingly wonderful and beautiful is, that, although Nature had advertised her plans for the development of animal life, down to the smallest minutia, from the very beginning, all contingencies were foreseen; no amendments, no modifications were necessitated, by the growth of worlds, or successive populations, or the march of human improvement. It was thus in continental formation; it was thus in animal creation.

Nature transcends all possibilities of human expectation, in the infinite flexibility of her plans, and in the inexhaustible fullness of their execution. To the geologist nothing is more familiar, than the fact, that three of the four fundamental plans of animal structure were introduced, upon the earth, simultaneously; viz.: the Radiata, the Mollusca and the Articulata. All hypothesis of the genealogical succession of these three fundamental plans of organic life is rationally precluded by their simultaneous introduc¬ tion. Those three fundamental forms or plans of animal structure, were not the first to put in an appearance on the earth; the inscrutable, isolated, and mysterious Ezoon, stood in the remote ages of Ezoic time, in about the same relation to animal life, as a desolate islet, in the midst of a dark trackless and tempest-tossed ocean, does to a continent. The Vertebrata came next: thus laying the four fundamental corner-stones upon which nature has built the superstructure of animal life.

The labors of scientists, the bowels of the earth, or the archives of the solid rocks, have failed to furnish any specimen of animal life, that does not conform to one of these fundamental types, which nature announced in the beginning, viz., Radiata, Mollusca, Articulata, or Vertebrata.

We shall not attempt to describe all the animals indigenous to this terri¬ tory - great and small, useful and troublesome to man, but content ourselves With referring to some of the most prominent specimens.

Game. In the early days of the county, wild-grass, which grew to the height of several feet, covered the prairies. This furnished a safe retreat for the wild deer. Here he made his home, and here the sportsman sought after him. The deer found here was of the species, Cervus leucurus. Rab¬ bits are plentiful, and in winter furnish a delicious food. The fox and gray squirrels are quite common - in fact, in autumn, are numerous, often destroy¬ ing quantities of the farmer's corn.

Game birds are more plentiful. We have the turkey, the noblest, as well as the most sagacious of fowls, requiring all the stratagem of the hunter to shoot, and affording an excellent article of food.

The prairie hen and the water fowl were abundant in the early days, and were quite easily approached. But the crack of the hunter's rifle has made them adverse to his society, and they have become so shy, that it is with great difficulty they are taken.

Of the animals that are valuable for their furs, the beaver, the otter, the minx, the opossum, the raccoon and the muskrat, were formerly found in the country. The beaver has long since sought other and safer retreats, the otter has gone from the places frequented by man, and if the others remain, they are few in numbers, and they are so shy as to not be easily taken. Birds of passage, geese, ducks, pigeons, teal, and others at special seasons haunt our lakes and streams, and darken the air in their flight. The warblers, and hundreds of others migrate through the county. These migratory birds, include all species from the garden swallow to the tanager and gay bobolink.

This latter fine specimen usually passes our latitude in the spring, before be dons his soldiery uniform of black and white, and takes up his rattling song. On his return to the rice fields of the sunny south in autumn, he is dressed in his Quaker suit of gray, and his appearance and general de¬ meanor is sedate and sullen, indicative of his disposition to become a lazy gourmand when he reaches his destination. Strange stories could these birds of passage tell, had they the power of reason, and the gift of speech. Many scenes of joyous happiness greet their eyes, as well as scenes of sadness and death. Many lands they pass over, where all is mirth and gladness, and fraternal love, and many others where all is warlike and terrible, all sadness and gloom.

Birds should not only be tolerated - but such as destroy noxious insects should be protected and defended, not only by statute law, but by the uni¬ versal custom of the country. They should be artificially bred. They beautify our homes, cheer our despondent minds, and prove a blessing to the husbandman in the protection of his grain and fruit. The quail, the robin and thrush, the fly-catchers, swallows and night-hawks should be harbored and encouraged.

Blue-birds, wrens, woodpeckers, orioles, tanagers, cat-birds and mocking¬ birds should find in the farmer a friend steadfast and true. In fact, every species of bird whose destructive habits are not known to overbalance his better qualities, should receive protection from man.

1st. Those of greatest value to fruit-growers , in destroying noxious in¬ sects . - Blue-birds, titmice, all woodpeckers, (except that known as the sapsucker), the wrens, the ground-robins, meadow-lark, the fly-catchers, the king¬ bird, whip-poor-will, the night-hawk, the nut-hatchers and the pewees. Many others might be added; but these should never be destroyed, but should be fostered and protected. We might add the blackbirds, American cuckoo, plovers, snipes, grosbeaks, the scarlet tanager quail, song-sparrow, the creepers, the Maryland warbler, indigo-bird, and the thrushes.

2d. Birds of doubtful utility - Which include those that have beneficial qualities, but which have also noxious qualities, in the way of destroying fruits, grain, etc.

The robin, brown thrush and cat-birds are very useful in destroying cut¬ worms, which are wont to play havoc with the farmer's growing corn, but are just as obnoxious to the growers of small fruit. The blue jay is not only a source of evil to the grain and fruit growers, but carries his mean qualities into depredations upon the nests of smaller birds, destroying their eggs aud often their young. The butcher-bird, red-headed woodpecker, crow, owls, (screech-owls), pigeons aud mocking-birds, are placed in this list. There are numerous other birds that should be placed on one of the foregoing lists, but these are the most prominent ones.

Fish

The principal game-fish that are found in our streams are the cat, baas, and sun-fish, - the bass being chiefly sought after and requiring the greatest skill to take, affording excellent sport to the angler, and furnishing a most palatable article of diet.

The plants that are indigenous to the soil of our county are numerous and rare. Some seem to have been planted here by Nature especially to gladden the finer senses of man, by adorning and beautifying the landscape and his home, and to charge the balmy south breezes with a delicious fragrance for his especial benefit. Some seem especially given to us for remedies for the physical ills with which man is beset; still others furnish us with a de¬ licious and wholesome fruit.

Those that seem designed to ornament our homes and deck our prairies and woodlands, are the phlox, the lily, the asclepias, the mints, the rose, the golden-rods, the eye-bright, the gerardia, and hundreds of others that are scattered in rich profusion all over our plains and valleys.

The rose grows in wild profusion, and is regarded by many as being more beautiful in its tints, more rich in its fragrance, than the flower of any other plant. Many people prefer the wild specimen to that of the cultivated one. There is no plant nor flower more universally known or more universally admired than the rose. It is appropriate in all seasons and upon all occa¬ sions.

Another favorite is the lily. What boy is there that has not imperiled his health to procure a specimen of this pure and beautiful flower? Admiration of this flower is not confined to those of juvenile years and habits. The painter finds in it a subject worthy of the finest efforts of his pencil; the hu¬ manitarian finds in it an emblem of that purity of conscience that mankind is so desirous to possess. Poets have found in its pearly cup, and its deli¬ cate petals, inspiration for their muses:

The plants possessing medicinal properties are - The pink-root, the columbs, the golden-seal, may-apple, ginseng, wahoe, bone-set, penny-royal, sarsaparilla, and many others. Among the plants that bear fruit that is wholesome as food, are the strawberry, the raspberry, the blackberry, the mulberry, the plum, the grape and crab-apple, as well as the cultivated fruits.

Fore8T Trees

We have of these the sturdy oak, with its twenty different species, the historic hickory, with its many varieties; the pecan; the storm-tried elm, with its numerous species; and the majestic honey-locust, with its uninviting thorns, besides numerous others. We must not omit the mention of the stately black walnut and the picturesque cottonwood that bedeck our bottom-lands.

The climbing-vine, the trumpet-creeper, the bitter-sweet, the woodbine and the grape, fill the woods with gay and living festoons, and lend a charm of dignity and vitality to many a decaying monarch of the forest.

There is something peculiarly fascinating associated with the thoughts of the forest! Could the majestie oak, that has braved the blasts of centuries, have the gift of speech, what a history it could recount!

The Grasses are timothy, red-top and clover, which attest the value of the country for dairy purposes. The tail-pampas grass, that once covered the whole face of the prairies, growing tall as a horse's back, has almost ceased to exist, though specimens are still found in some places.