Agricultural and Indus 

 Progress in Cana 



A monthly review of Agricultural and Industrial progress in Canada^ 

 published by the Department of Colonization and Development of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway at Montreal, Canada. 



VOL. 4 No. 5 



MONTREAL 



May, 1922 



Migratory Birds Convention Act 



THE Act respecting certain conventions 

 between Canada and the United States 

 for the protection of migratory birds 

 which was ratified at Washington in December, 

 1917 and is summarized, with amendments, in a 

 government paper issued last fall, is beginning 

 to make itself felt. At least, so says Mr. Jack 

 Miner, student of wild life and lover of the 

 great outdoors, who, on his farm near Kingsville, 

 Essex County, Ontario, some years ago set 

 aside an area as a Birds Sanctuary. 



Briefly, the Act defines the opening and 

 closing dates for shooting migratory birds or 

 the taking of their eggs and nests, the bag 

 limits, the closed season, the kinds of guns and 

 appliances permitted 

 sportsmen, the pen- 

 alty for violating 

 the law and the 

 names of the birds 

 that come within 

 the protectory 

 clauses of the Act. 

 It is designed to 

 protect and propa- 

 gate the birds during 

 the mating and 

 breeding season and 

 obviate their extinc- 

 tion both north and south of the international 

 boundry, leaving to sportsmen and those who 

 depend upon the game for food supply, oppor- 

 tunity to indulge their purpose. 



Mr. Miner or "Jack" as he likes to be 

 called, bases his assertion on the number of wild 

 geese and ducks which annually visit his Sanctu- 

 ary ponds. "Since the Act went into effect," 

 he declares, "I have noted the steady increase 

 in the number of birds that come to sojourn 

 with me. The first year some years ago, 

 I definitely offered protection and feed to these 

 birds, seven only visited me; but they came 

 back the following one with eleven others and 

 year by year, they have returned in increasing 

 numbers until this spring between three and 



Hosts of valuable birds that nest in Canada spend their 

 winters in the United States. To grant these the protection 

 their value warrants, the Migratory Bird Treaty was ratified. 

 The open seasons for game birds were made of uniform 

 length in all Stales and Provinces and there is no spring 

 shooting. Insect eating birds, one of the chief natural enemies 

 of insect pests which ravage forest, garden and orchard, are 

 granted continual protection. 



The treaty is a success for it is bringing back the birds. 



four thousand are now to be found on the 

 Sanctuary. I attribute the great increase in 

 the last three years to the Migratory Birds Act. " 

 Mr. Miner, who is a philosopher as well as 

 friend of bird and beast, is an enthusiast on 

 wild life conservation, From childhood he has 

 lived on the farm he now occupies, which in his 

 youth was uncultivated forest land, and mingled 

 daily with the wild things of the woods. He has 

 made friends with them and come to understand 

 them. "When you kill a bird in the spring," 

 he says, you're depleting bird life; you're taking 

 a mate away from some other bird and wiping 

 out untold, unborn families. It is a moral 

 crime for anyone to kill any bird at mating or 

 hatching time;" and he faithfully practices what 

 he preaches. 



About ten acres 

 of the farm is set 

 aside as the Sanc- 

 tuary and protection 

 is extended for two 

 miles on either side. 

 In this area, Mr. 

 Miner made an arti- 

 ficial pond and 

 scattered corn on 

 the banks and the 

 shallow bottoms. 

 Last year, 7,000 bu- 

 shels (on the cob) 

 were fed to them, and now, year after year, 

 in increasing numbers, in the early spring and 

 late fall, he is visited by his feathered friends. 

 They know him and trust him. Sportsmen who 

 have attempted to approach wild geese near 

 enough for a sure kill, know the difficulty of 

 accomplishing their purpose, know the sagacity 

 and intelligence of the species. Yet Mr. Miner 

 walks carelessly amongst them and brings his 

 friends and visitors with him. 



Wintering along the shores of the Gulf of 

 Mexico, the coasts of Florida and the mouth of 

 the Mississippi, wild geese migrate northwards 

 in the early spring to breed in the vicinity of 

 Hudson and James Bay, Labrador and Baffin 

 Land. In the course of their long flight they 



