LET US GO AFIELD 



and early October that they were a curse to the 

 farmer. They "fed on the fields in hordes, and I 

 can mention farmers who lost as high as a third of 

 their grain in the stock. I know of a field or two 

 that were worthless and were never even threshed ; 

 but this condition was quite local. The trips I made 

 a hundred miles east, and even less south and west, 

 showed an absolute scarcity of wildfowl. The 

 ducks come where feed is abundant and convenient 

 to open water. Still, it sounds strange to hear in 

 1913 of a farmer having to hire a man to patrol 

 his grain fields in the evening and morning to pro- 

 tect them from wild ducks. 



"Our grouse miscalled prairie chickens and 

 partridges are very much on the increase, owing 

 partly to the absolute protection afforded them by 

 the Province of Alberta for some years; they are 

 getting so numerous, in fact, that the open season 

 was extended a month this year on grouse. They 

 were doing damage to cut grain not to mention 

 the quantity of seed they scratch out of the ground 

 in the seeding season. Being non-migratory, of 

 course it is up to us to retain them or exterminate 

 them; but, if the general attitude of our people 

 toward the close season placed on them a few years 

 ago is to be taken as a criterion of our wish to 

 conserve the species, it will be a long time before 



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