112 



THE GAME BREEDER 



right food' for them. Please tell me 

 what food is required for them. 

 Yours truly, 

 Delaware. Walter J. Willis. 



[We have had no experience with Swine- 

 hoes. We suggest that you write to our 

 advertisers and ask if any special food is 

 required. Wc cannot think so. The birds 

 are pheasants and it seems to us that they 

 should be fed as other aviary species are. 

 When we don't know anything we simply say 

 so and tell readers where to get the best 

 advice. Our advertisers certainlv are success- 

 ful—Editor.] 



More Eggs. 



One of our readers says, "I have not 

 had time to write as I should. I have 

 just sold 1,500 ringneck eggs by tele- 

 gram. I sold another order of 1,500 and 

 numerous small orders for 800 eggs ; and 

 I have set 2,500' myself. Next year I 

 shall have about three times as many." 

 Who says the Hercules Powder Com- 

 pany has not promoted the sale of cart- 

 ridges ? 



We are always glad to hear from 

 readers. We seem to have mislaid a 

 note from one who says he will have 

 50,000 eggs. We are a little curious to 

 know which one of our readers produced 

 the most eggs. We have several records 

 of 25,000 and more and the best part 

 of it is all of them sold all they wished 

 to sell, being 'determined to have much 

 larger breeding stocks next year than 

 they had this season. Who says our 

 dream about making America a big game 

 producing country is not coming true ? 



More Crows. 



A New England reader writes : "I 

 found two nests with 11 and 12 eggs re- 

 spectively completely, cleaned out this 

 a. m. by the crows. There is a big 

 colony of them right off my enclosure 

 and in an untenanted corner of a neigh- 

 boring farm. Surely they are hard to 

 deal with for although the "22" is work- 

 ing overtime to a very good purpose and 

 I have a few carcasses hung- up for all 

 to see as well as some poisoned eggs 

 left out in the swamp, they are so bold 

 they will rob the nests in spite of all." 



Remedial. 



Try a Sauter decoy owl (see adver- 

 tisement) and a Remington automatic 

 scatter gun (see advertisement). We 

 think it likely some of your neighbors 

 will join and enjoy the "free shooting" 

 at crows. You can help make them good 

 soldiers for future wars although we 

 hope there will be no more wars. 



Pheasants and Pigs. 



A reader says : "The second night 

 after the keeper had placed the pheasant 

 coops in the held with the 167 pheasants 

 in them, some pigs which I keep broke 

 down the fence which separated them 

 from the pheasant field and killed 147 

 of the young birds. 



"Only 75 duck 'were hatched from 

 200 eggs and a proportion of 37y 2 per 

 cent of fertile eggs is rather less than 

 it should be." 



Among the discouraging records 

 which come from new places this is the 

 first pig record. The pig is a dangerous 

 animal. A little girl who wandered from 

 the yard into a field where there were 

 pigs was killed and partly devoured by 

 the animals. A setter, which belonged 

 to a friend of ours, who shot on the 

 farm, made frantic efforts to induce the 

 mother of the child to come out of the 

 house, but when she followed him to the 

 field it was too late. A bulldog probably 

 would have handled the matter differ- 

 ently. 



More Silkies. 



Many game breeders use silkies and 

 all say they make excellent foster 

 mothers. There seems to be a big' de- 

 mand for these birds. One of our read- 

 ers who uses silkies writes : "Can you 

 put me on trail of some more silkies?' 

 In my estimation and in opposition to 

 the opinion of Mr. Lee S. Crandall, who 

 is quoted as saying, T am afraid the 

 silky fowl is not very practicable as a 

 foster mother because it is too small,' 

 the silkies are better foster mothers than 

 bantams, since they are very gentle, light 

 and they can cover as many eggs as an 



