42 BULLETIN 1049, V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



GAME BREEDING. 



STATE GAME FAItMS. 



In recent years a number of efforts have been made in several 

 States to increase the amount of game by propagation and by the 

 distribution of certain kinds of game birds. Propagating plants, 

 commonly known as game farms, have been established under State 

 auspices for the purpose of producing as many birds as possible. 

 Some of these farms have been operated in connection with fish 

 liatcheries, others have been established as independent organizations. 



The kinds of birds which can be propagated in any considerable 

 numbers are necessarily limited. Pheasants, chiefly ring-necked and 

 English pheasants, are th-e ones most commonly raised, and a few 

 of the other species, such as silver, golden. Lady Amherst, and 

 Reeves, are produced on a small scale, mostly for exhibition. Mal- 

 lards and black ducks, wood ducks, and wild turkeys are also raised 

 in considerable numbers. 



Among the more important game farms have been those estab- 

 lished in Massachusetts, Connecticut. New York, New Jersey, Dela- 

 ware, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota. Missouri, Iowa, Oregon, and Cali- 

 . fornia. In several cases the farms have been abandoned after a trial 

 of a few years on account of the expense involved or because the 

 results were unsatisfactory. Ohio abandoned the raising of pheas- 

 ants about 1902, but has recently again taken up the propagation of 

 game birds. The most extensive game farm thus far established was 

 probably that of Illinois, near Auburn. 16 miles south of Springfield, 

 established in the spring of 1905, and abandoned about 1915. 



The California game farm raised pheasants and also experimented 

 to some extent with wild turkeys imported from Mexico. The 

 Illinois farm raised numbers of English call-ducks for distribution 

 among sportsmen interested in duck shooting, chiefly along the 

 Illinois River. The Massachusetts commission has experimented in 

 raising quail and ruffed grouse in captivity, but this work has not 

 yet reached large proportions and the raising of ruffed grouse is 

 still in an experimental stage. Much good work has been done at 

 the New Jersey State game farm near Toms River, where pheasants. 

 (|uail, and rabbits have been propagated. The most extensive State 

 farms noAv in operation are those in New York, of which there are 

 three — at Brownsville, Jefferson County; Sherburne, Chenango 

 County; and IVIiddle Island in Suffolk County. In 1919 these farms 

 distributed 9.206 half -grown birds and 55,400 eggs for propagation. 



The whole question underlying the successful operation of game 

 farms is whether birds can be produced more cheaply under State 

 auspices than they can be bought from private breeders. Advocates 

 of game faims assert that game can be produced as economically on a 



