AS A LUMBERMAN 385 



woodlots in areas which are unimportant as grouse range anyway. 



The Investigation has not made censuses on comparable pastured and unpastured grouse 

 range and hence can not present specific figures on the effect of livestock pasturing on pro- 

 ductivity or carrying capacity. The conclusions reached are based upon general observa- 

 tions, which, however, have been very clear. 



It should be noted, in passing, that livestock pasturing, as well as the plow, is a tool of 

 the farmer for maintaining open land. As such, it often assists in maintaining a high grouse 

 population in adjacent coverts made possible by that open land. 



Livestock occasionally destroy grouse nests by trampling, though the loss from such a 

 cause is not of great importance. 



Other Domestic Stock 



While the pasturing of livestock is the most important relationship of farm animals to 

 grouse, chickens and other domestic fowl, dogs and cats in some instances may have some 

 significance. 



A grouse nest was examined in Delaware Count) in which a chicken had laid eggs and 

 caused the grouse to desert. This is not a common occurrence but worthy of passing note. 

 In the summer of 193G, a grouse bmod on the Connecticut Hill study area was flushed from 

 the midst of a group of chickens, all of them having been scratching about in the leaves 

 together. Such contacts of grouse with chickens or other domestic fowl are not uncommon 

 and may provide an occasional means of transmission of disease*. It is clear, too, that even 

 without contact, traversing the same terrain as domestic fowl may possibly lead to disease. 



Dogs and cats, especially those allowed to roam at will, often become serious predators. The 

 dog exerts the most effect in nest-destruction while the cat is adept at catching young birds 

 and occasionally adults. The im|)ortance of these domestic animals as grouse predators is 

 detailed in Chapter VII. 



AS A LUMBERMAN'^' 



When the white man arrived, he found what is now New York covered with a vast forest, 

 broken only by water areas, marshes, cliffs, occasional blow-downs and the scattered clear- 

 ings of the Indians. Forest cover types merged into one another with a minimum of definite 

 edges, except where such natural forces as wind, fire, insects, disease or decadence had 

 broken the woodland canopy. Undisturbed by civilized man, the forest had achieved a stage 



* See Chapter X, p. 415. 

 A By David B. Cook. 



