56 FISH AND GAME. 



Sutton Game Farm. 



Operations have been carried on at this station as in former 

 years in the rearing of pheasants and mallard ducks. Many 

 of the old small coops for the latter have been discarded in 

 favor of large rearing yards supplied with running water. The 

 extension of this plan will do much toward improving the 

 quality of the birds for liberation by developing their wild 

 instincts, and will substantially decrease the labor entailed in 

 caring for such a large number of coops. 



While many young ducks were liberated this year a large 

 number were kept to a mature size, in order to insure a good 

 selection for brood stock. Pheasants were bred in small lots, 

 1 cock with 2 to 4 hens, for the most part in movable, covered 

 pens instead of open runs, so that the birds could be kept with 

 full wing, and many were liberated in season to enable them 

 to raise a brood in the open after furnishing a good egg yield 

 to the station. 



Among the recent important improvements have been the 

 erection of a shed with stalls and harness rooms for the storage 

 of wagons, lumber and other material, and a line of permanent 

 henhouses to replace the old portable coops. The superfluous 

 shade trees, having become a severe handicap to proper bird 

 rearing, for which only low brush is desirable, were removed 

 during the winter. Nursery operations were continued, and 

 quantities of trees and shrubs useful in bird rearing have been 

 shipped to other stations. 



Preparations are now well under way for the development of 

 an elaborate educational exhibit illustrating the different phases 

 of fish and game propagation. This is to be used in connection 

 with live fish and bird exhibitions throughout the State. 



East Sandwich Game Farm. 



Activities at this station at the present time are being con- 

 fined primarily to the rearing of quail, although we are con- 

 tinuing experimental work w r ith the ruffed grouse. 



The season of 1916 opened with more breeding quail on 

 hand than ever before, in spite of the fact that vermin - 

 mainly the great horned owl and the weasel - - had done con- 



