EARLY EFFORTS AT ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION 



27 



discouraged. Torrey, therefore, was placed in charge of the East Sandwich Game Farm and 

 instructed to trap a wild brood stock of grouse. About a dozen were finally secured but 

 did not breed well in captivity, so that the main dependence was again on wild eggs. Dur- 

 ing this and the succeeding year, at least 150 of these were obtained from one source or an- 

 other, mostly by the game wardens. Sensing a long and difficult time ahead, however, the 

 "powers that be" overruled Dr. Field and officially terminated the experiments in the spring 

 of 1916. Without so much as a band being placed on them to help determine future survival, 

 the birds raised that summer were liberated. 



However, Torrey's heart was with the grouse to the last. Thereafter he never lost a chance 

 to pick up a clutch or two of eggs and to rear as many as possible of the chicks, usually 

 with bantams. In 1933, nine of the birds, which Torrey raised personally, were graciously 

 contributed to swell the propagation experiments already under>vay by this Investigation. 

 The following year Charles Dimniick. long-time grouse enthusiast, returned from a fishing 

 trip in Vermont with two clutches of eggs. All in all, he carried these well over 300 miles. 

 At his request Torrey set these under two broody bantams, one nest in either side of an 

 orange crate. Eleven of the birds that hatched grew to maturity, cared for by their foster 

 mothers, only to fall prey to great horned owls which decapitated them while they vainly 

 tried to fly through the wire of their pen. A decade earlier. Dr. Arthur A. Allen had demon- 

 strated conclusively that poultry could usually be depended upon to carry diseases fatal to 

 grouse. That these birds were raised at all, therefore, was a tribute indeed to the care and 

 perseverance with which Torrey carried on his work. 



Two others among a host of experimentors stand out during this early |)eriod — John 

 Burnham. long-time president of the American Game Protective Association, and U. S. Sen- 

 ator Frederic C. Walcott of Connecticut, one of its most enthusiastic backers. Roth were dis- 

 satisfied with the cessation of Torrey's South Carver experiments. To each came the oppor- 

 tunity to further the cause. 



With the establishmenl of the U. S. Biological Survey's experimental fur farm in northern 

 New York, George Jeffries"" was appointed its operating head in 1915. Backed by Burn- 

 ham's enthusiasm, Jeffries secured a few clutches, in 1915, from which he over-wintered 

 six or seven birds. This experiment was repeated the second year, with like success. Though, 

 at the time, few folk worried about ground-borne diseases, the fact that Jeffries selected land 

 on which no poultry had run for over 20 years, unquestionably was one secret of his suc- 

 cess. The World War. in 1917. removed Jeffries to other fields and terminated the experi- 

 ment. 



Meanwhile, in western Connecticut, on the Childs and Walcott preserve, a Scotch game- 



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