CHILLICOTHE, Ill. — More hands (and maybe some sturdy backs) are needed to help keep alive a decades-old spring planting tradition that has educated thousands of Illinois youth in the fundamentals of farming — 1918 style. 

Three Sisters Park located in Chillicothe (Peoria County), Ill., offers 5th through 7th grade students a hands-on opportunity to learn about the agricultural history of central Illinois every spring through its Spring Planting event, which will be held April 28-30. At a cost of $5 per student (often absorbed by the schools), Three Sisters Park volunteers oversee interactive demonstrations in the areas of soil preparation, seed selection, and corn planting using century-old techniques including horse-drawn equipment.

As with many volunteer-led events and missions, the number of participants stepping up to lead the activities at Three Sisters’ Spring Planting has been shrinking. Park manager Susan Bobbitt and volunteer coordinators are now actively seeking individuals or groups of people who don’t mind getting their hands dirty to keep the event alive. 

What can a volunteer expect? The park’s website explains that six educational stations are set up to teach how early agrarians went about the planting process, with students encouraged to actively take part in each area to get a better understanding of the efforts and methods used more than a century ago. Visitors begin in the park’s large pavilion learning what it was like to grow up on a farm in the early 1900s. Participants prepare germination tests and learn to read germination tests already in progress, and discover the difference between open-pollinated and hybrid seeds.

Next, visitors learn about draft horses and their importance on early Illinois farms. They see how draft horse teams were harnessed. The school kids are then allowed to compete in a horse harnessing relay race using life-size “dummy” horses.

Real draft horses, provided by a local farmer, are used to show how the land was plowed and prepared for the planting. Students are given the opportunity to try their hand at plowing and driving the horses, and are also allowed to pull the plow themselves with a tow rope to demonstrate the power of the draft horses.

Corn planting techniques are demonstrated using horses, check wire, stakes and a planter. Students help load the seed corn into the antique planter and move the check wire. They also plant corn using manual seed planters.

Before learning to pick corn by hand, students learn how to quickly identify a good seed ear. As they pick the corn, they are encouraged to toss promising seed ears into a small seed box and toss the other ears in a moving horse-drawn wagon.

“This program was started by retired school teachers. We got involved in it and it’s just something that I now love doing,” volunteer Don Thompson told Farm World for a 2018 article. He was one of many retired Caterpillar workers, farmers and other professionals who, along with more than 90 financial contributors, keep the event afloat from year to year. “It takes close to $10,000 to put this program on. Elevators, banks, restaurants — I just can’t name all the great people and businesses that step up to help us out.”

Local business and non-profit sponsors, including the Massey Collectors Association, help keep the event plowing forward, but more hands-on volunteers are needed to keep the event growing for future generations. 

More information on Three Sisters Park and Spring Planting can be found at www.threesisterspark.com.