182 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



F'(DDDLT[Biy llP^a^T 



rair 



A. I. Root 



CHICKEN thieves; WHAT SHALL WE DO TO 



PROTECT OUR VALUABLE STOCK FROM 



THEIR DEPREDATIONS? 



In our issue for Feb. 15, p. 106, I spoke of 

 losing a duck and a drake. Well, about 

 the middle of January two more were gone 

 when the flock came home at night; and 

 finally on Sunday evening when they got 

 home my only remaining drake was gone. It 

 was not so much the loss of the five ducks 

 as it was the fact that I must stop letting 

 my ducks run at large in the drainage canal 

 that adjoins my five acres. After losing the 

 two we went to considerable expense and 

 trouble in making a fence in the rocky bot- 

 tom of the stream so as to give them a place 

 to swim in close to the shore; but as this 

 prevented them largely from getting the 

 moss and shellfish, the yield of eggs soon 

 dropped off. Last, and Vjy no means least, 

 I was forced to conclude some one was 

 taking lessons in theft — regular progressive 

 lessons — and getting off " scot free "every 

 time. Something had to be done. I hard- 

 ly need tell you I prayed over the matter 

 again and again. The outcome as to what 

 was best to be done was the following, which 

 I clip from the Bradentown Weekly Jour- 

 nal: 



"thou SHALT NOT STEAL." 



Ed. Journal: — I have repeatedly, both In print 

 and by correspondence, extolled Bradentown and 

 vicinity as remarkably free from petty thieving, 

 and remarked that, after being north all summer, 

 we invariably find every thing about our premises 

 intact on our return. Well, I greatly regret to be 

 obliged to report we have at least a, few sinners as 

 well as saints in our midst. Five choice breeding 

 ducks (with excellent records) have been taken 

 from our flock recently. All were taken in midday 

 — the first, the day before Thanksgiving; the second, 

 the day before New Year's day; two more in Jan- 

 uary, and the last, a large choice drake, the only 

 one I had left, was taken yesterday, February 11 

 (probably while we were at church and Sunday- 

 school) ; and to get him the culprit broke through 

 a fence of barbed wire and poultry netting, drove 

 him into a corner, and evidently killed him with 

 stones taken out of the brook they waded through 

 to get to the f«^nce. Although the loss of this drake 

 just now blocks my work with the incubator, and 

 is a great inconvenience to me, this is nothing 

 compared to letting some one (possibly a boy or 

 boys) go on vinhindered in the school of crime. 

 Does it not behoove every industrious, law-abiding 

 citizen to call a halt at such work in open daylight, 

 and mostly, if not all, on Sunday? Such work may 

 call a halt in developing an industry that this re- 

 gion seems particularly adapted to. A. I. Root. 



The second clipping from the same jour- 

 nal, a week later, gives the result, as yovi see: 



AN INTERRUPTED PILLAU. 



The parties who have been making raids on Mr. 

 A. I. Roofs ducks, as published in last week's J^oh;-- 

 ii'il. have been captured, and the ringleader, a 

 young white man about 18 or 20 years old, is now in 

 jail. Sheriff Wyatt walked up on them last Sun- 

 day as they were gathered around a fire out in the 

 woods cooking a I'lllau. Out of regard for the par- 

 ents of the boys we withhold name.s. but we hope 

 these parents will not withhold the lash. 



The arrest of the gang of five boys was 

 owing to the kind service of Dr. Morgan, a 

 near neighbor and a longtime subscriber to 

 Gleanings. He had but two ducks, and 



at first decided to pen them up while at 

 church on Sunday, but afterward conclud- 

 ed to leave them out in the canal and stay 

 at home from church and watch. About 

 10 A.M. the ducks were missing. He follow- 

 ed along up the stream, and on coming to a 

 piece of woods he saw smoke arising. Fur- 

 ther along he found the feathers, and then 

 came upon five boys with a kettle, cooking 

 their duck. Without alarming them he 

 proceeded to the nearest house, and called 

 up by telephone the sheriff. Now, here is 

 something I want you all to make note of. 

 When the oldest one, and evidently the 

 ringleader, was arrested he had a cigarette in 

 his mouth, and kept right on smoking it, 

 proclaiming that /te "just happened " along, 

 and was in no wise connected with the other 

 youngsters; but (if I am correct) he was the 

 one who announced, when the sheriff pro- 

 ceeded to confiscate the kettle (duck and 

 all), "Here! that is my kettle." 



Now, friends, would it be a very long 

 jump, in "jumping at conclusions," to say 

 it was cigarettes that stole my five ducks?" 



In that excellent book I have just referred 

 to, the Corning Egg Farm, there is a chap- 

 ter that is headed, " Policing the farm with 

 bloodhounds, searchlights, and ritles;" and 

 the chapter starts out with these words: 

 "In the fall of each year, from almost every 

 part of the country, come reports of what 

 seems to be organized thieving in the poul- 

 try line," and then the author tells about 

 what they are doing with bloodhounds, 

 searchlights, and sharpshooters. I need 

 hardly tell you that these cigarette saloon- 

 frequenters would just as soon take your 

 most valuable fowl for a roast in the woods 

 as any other, for there are veritable Aea^Aer?- 

 right here in our land of schools and 

 churches. Let me advise, in closing, the 

 need of alaw-and-order club among poultry- 

 men, with dogs and detectives, to punish 

 such offenders until they have had enough 

 of it. Let a fund of money be raised that 

 will be ample to meet thexepense of getting 

 the culprits, swift and sure. Since this 

 matter came up, my neighbors, right and 

 left, tell of having had valuable fowls stol- 

 en. Let me here repeat a little story I told 

 you some years ago. When I was witness- 

 ing the early experiments of the Wright 

 Bros. 1 boarded with a farmer whose wife 

 was on a decline with the great white plague. 

 To prolong the life of the poor woman (and 

 they were jjoor financially) the doctors ad- 

 vised poultry-keeping in order to have her 

 in the open air as much as possible. She 

 became quite enthusiastic, succeeded with 

 the poultry, and was improving in health, 

 when one morning as she went out to lib- 

 erate her pets that she had lal)ored so hard 

 for, to get them up to broiler age, she found 

 every chick gone, and just the still empty 

 coops. The shock and disai)pointment were 

 so great she went into a decline, and not 



