a2 TAE AU DU BOUN SBE SEs 
Bird Conservation in Adams County 
One of the most effective movements in conservation has been the 
organization of a series of big areas in Adams County, Illinois, which 
are posted against all hunting, and where a definite program which 
will increase the number of Quail is being carried on by the farmers. 
The past summer a group of eight or ten of the most prominent 
members of the Adams County Farm Bureau met in the yard of T. E. 
Musselman. Mr. J. T. Alison assured a continuous succession of farms 
totaling more than 2,000 acres. The northeast portion of the county 
organized with a total area of 5,000 acres and two small areas ranging 
from 1,500 to 2,400 acres are now closed to all hunting and are being 
scientifically prepared for the care of Quail. Mr. Musselman has given 
several of the units a lecture on the “Life Habits of Quail,” and showed 
the farmers how to construct definite types of winter shelters and 
feeding locations. 
A study is now being made on a program of planting that will 
furnish Quail with food twelve months of the year. The farmers are 
studying their land, and will plant hazel brush and blackberry briars 
along their creeks and washes on their farms with the dual purpose of 
supplying cover and stopping erosion. If the proper authority can be 
secured, the farmers hope to establish a Quail rearing center on each 
of the four units in which they will have a number of Quail from which 
they will secure their egg supply which will be transferred to bantam 
hens for incubation and rearing. The young birds will be released when 
they are old enough to join the native wild coveys. Water supply is to 
be studied and deep ponds will be dug on many of the farms with a 
planting of trees on the south banks. 
The definite plan under which these farmers are carrying on this 
conservation program can be secured by writing to T. E. Musselman, 
Quincy, Illinois, and inclosing a three-cent stamp to cover the cost of 
mailing. 
In a letter to the Editors, Mr. Musselman writes: 
“It may interest you to know that at the present time I have forty 
additional Bluebird boxes constructed and painted and ready for erec- 
tion, and there are fifty more boxes which have been cut, ready to be 
fabricated. This will give me a total of two hundred and fifty boxes, 
covering over one hundred and twenty-five miles of country road, and 
should these have the ninety-five per cent of occupancy which has been 
my record for several years, with an average of eight young birds to 
a box, will make better than one thousand eight hundred young Blue- 
birds that will be hatched in Adams County, Illinois. We now boast 
the title of ‘The Bluebird County of the United States,’ and I really 
believe there are more young Bluebirds born in our county than in any 
other similar location in the country. Even at this season of the year 
it is possible to see small groups of birds on the wires along our coun- 
try roads, a condition which shows the practicability of this small 
project in conservation. 
