84 FIELD SHOOTING. 



of January. In other counties where the grouse 

 abounded to the degree that the farmers thought 

 they consumed too much of the crop, there was 

 no close-time in January, February, and March. 

 I do not think grouse ever do any appreciable 

 damage to the crops. What grain they eat would 

 be otherwise wasted. They may, however, do 

 some little harm by consuming seed-wheat just 

 after the sowing. They bite off and eat the blades 

 of young wheat, but that often does more good 

 than harm, and farmers sometimes turn calves 

 into young wheat-fields to feed it off. The biting 

 off done by grouse in the earlier stages has a 

 tendency to make it stool well, I think. It is cer- 

 tain that the pinnated grouse does the farmer good 

 by consuming grasshoppers and other insects which 

 are troublesome and destructive. The law of Illi- 

 nois in regard to shooting grouse is now uniform 

 all over the State. The shooting ceases on the 

 fifteenth day of January. Thus the shooting lasts 

 five months. I am in favor of lopping off fifteen 

 days at the commencement, making it September 

 1 instead of August 15, and another fifteen 

 days at the end, making it cease on the first 

 of January. It would then last four months. But 

 the duration of the shooting-time is not of so 



