112 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Now, on the other hand, suppose the farmer had let the boys 

 go to the house, when that first flock of ducks came in there, get 

 the gun and go down there and fire a shot or two at them. Or, 

 if they had one of these infernal machines known as an auto- 

 matic or pump gun, they might have fired a volley into them; 

 they might have killed half or two-thirds of them. The rest 

 would have gotten up and gone away and never come back 

 again, and this beautiful piece of history never could have been 

 written and these beautiful pictures never could have been made. 



It pays to take care of the remnants of wild life you have, 

 and if you do that you will soon have plenty of it. 



The time was when the wild goose was as abundant all over 

 this country as the wild duck ever was; but it was a bigger mark 

 and easier to get at. It has been hunted more industriously 

 because the men got more meat for each cartridge. The result 

 is the splendid birds are almost extinct. Only a very few of 

 them are left anywhere. Twenty-five years ago you could 

 often see five hundred of them feeding in a wheat field almost 

 anywhere in this western country. You could often see a hun- 

 dred or five hundred of them on a sand bar here in the Missouri 

 river; but not one today. Once in a while you may see a small 

 flock; but they are mighty nearly gone and the last one will be 

 in five years more unless we stop all killing. 



The sand crane is another splendid bird that was formerly 

 here in millions. I have seen three or four hundred of them in 

 a flock when I was a kid on the prairies; but they are almost 

 extinct today. The only place I know of any of them nesting is 

 in Saskatchewan Territory, away in Northwest Canada. There 

 are a few there yet, but their days are numbered. The gunner 

 is up there as well as everywhere else, and he will get them 

 sooner or later. 



The average farmer considers all hawks and owls his enemies 

 and kills every one he can get a bead on. It is a serious mistake. 

 These hawks and owls are among your best friends, because they 

 eat the gophers, the field mice, rats, moles and other things that 

 damage your crops and trees. Only two species of owl and three 

 species of the hawk ever disturb domestic poultry, and they carry 

 off a chicken very rarely. In the meantime they and all the 

 other "fifty-seven varieties" are hunting rats, mice, field mice, 

 moles and all these other rodents. And when they don't find 

 enough of these to feed their young and themselves, they go into 

 the fields and hunt grasshoppers and potato bugs and beetles 



