26 FIELD SHOOTING. 



over, there are commonly many nests in each, 

 sometimes scores of them, and they are half-full 

 of eggs. This cuts up the supply of grouse root 

 and branch, and reduces the numbers to a serious 

 extent every year. It is a great mistake on the 

 part of the farmers, for the grouse, by consump- 

 tion of grasshoppers and other destructive insects, 

 is one of the agriculturist's best friends, and the 

 grass would be just as good if the patches of 

 prairie were burned over late in the fall, when 

 there would be no nests destroyed. It is to be 

 hoped that this plan will be adopted for the fu- 

 ture ; and I think it will be, for the possession of 

 guns and sporting-dogs, and the love of shooting, 

 are spreading among the farmers of the West, and 

 these, after all, will be in time the most efficient 

 preservers of the game. The men, such as my- 

 self, who go every fall to shoot in the great un- 

 broken prairies which still exist in Ford County, 

 Champagne County, and about there, burn the 

 grass themselves late in the fall, and thus leave 

 nothing to be burned the following spring in nest- 

 ing-time. By this means the stock of grouse is 

 fully kept up, and it is from thence the great 

 packs migrate towards the last of October and in 

 November. Upon this subject I consider myself 



