EARLY EFFORTS AT ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION 



29 



empirical experiments out of the realm of chance and to make of them a careful series of 

 planned projects. That man was Dr. A. A. Allen, Professor of Ornithology at Cornell. 



Emphasis in the conservation picture was rapidly shifting from protection to the raising 

 and liberation of game birds as an assurance of better shooting days ahead — the result largely 

 of unprecedented successes in rearing and stocking pheasants. 



The American Game Protective Association attempted to further this movement through 

 establishing an experimental game farm at Cornell University with Dr. A. A. Allen in charge of 

 the research program. It was Dr. Allen's thought to contribute to the success of this venture 

 by developing a technique for the artificial propagation of ruffed grouse. 



DR. A. A. ALLEN. DEAN OF AMERICAN GROUSE 

 BREEDERS, WITH SOME OF HIS HAND-RAISED BIRDS 



When the farm was taken over two years later by New York State as a pheasant propaga- 

 tion unit, Allen, "in full ignorance of the real problem, spurred on by the partial success of 

 others ..." continued for a full 13 years a series of most significant and productive ex- 

 periments. The bulk of these are well described in a paper entitled "Ten Years Experiments 

 in the Rearing of Ruffed Grouse in Captivity"" presented before the Sixteenth American 

 Game Conference in 1929. It was he who first successfully controlled many of the diseases, 

 which had plagued earlier breeders, by rearing and holding his birds on wire. Likewise, his 

 experiments led to the development of feeding formulas which furnished a sound basis for 

 propagation experiments subsequently carried on by the Investigation. The colony breeding 



