THE GAME BREEDER 



141 



the reclamation service, and by irrigation 

 made available for this purpose. 



Every dealer in Du Pont explosives 

 should get behind this movement and 

 push. It is a splendid thing for the coun- 

 try, because its consummation will ward 

 off the spread of discontent and possibly 

 something worse in labor circles. It is a 

 good thing for the various states, because 

 it will develop their resources, increase 

 their trade, their bank reserves, and add 

 to their general prosperity. It is a good 

 thing for the soldiers, because it will 

 make property owners of them with a 

 definite interest in a business of their 



own, and every political economist rec- 

 ognizes this to be a very desirable condi- 

 tion. It reduces the volume of floating, 

 unattached labor, and it makes the coun- 

 try less liable to upheaval in time of in- 

 dustrial depression. 



There is good profit in the sale of 

 dynamite and blasting supplies, as many 

 of the dealers in the cut-over land re- 

 gions of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michi- 

 gan, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and 

 other localities can testify. 



[All of the swamp lands should be used for 

 breeding wild fowl. Wild ducks are the best 

 game birds for beginners. — Editor.] 



THE 10TH CAT AND THREE BROODS OF QUAIL. 



By the Editor. 



Nine cats of various sizes and colors 

 had fallen to the game keeper's gun as 

 they came to the rearing fields of the 

 Long Island Game Breeders Association. 

 The little 20-gauge Parker gun had 

 spoken nine times effectively and the cats 

 went to the happy hunting ground be- 

 fore they had a chance to eat any of 

 the young quail and pheasants. 



Some of the cats were big wild cats 

 from the woods, which evidently had no 

 owner; others were cats of more refine- 

 ment which, no doubt, lived part of the 

 time, at least, in houses. There were 

 yellow cats, gray cats, black cats and 

 parti-colored cats of high and low de- 

 gree. 



The heads and tails of the wilder 

 specimens were tacked on the end of 

 the food house, used as a vermin rack ; 

 the milder mannered cats were buried 

 out of sight for reasons well known to 

 game keepers who wish to avoid con- 

 troversies. 



Three big broods of quail, one each 

 of Gambels, Scaled and Bobwhite quail 

 (between 40 and 50 birds) were in the 

 quail nursery with their bantam foster 



mothers. The little birds ran about in* 

 side the wire fenders before the coops. 

 They were a week or ten days old and 

 all of them were healthy and active. I 

 had planned to move these three broods 

 to the kitchen garden near the house in 

 order to ascertain what garden insects 

 and weed seeds the little quail preferred. 

 A few of the birds were to have been 

 killed in order to have examinations 

 made of their stomach contents. 



Our neighbor was known to have a 

 cat. He had it last year when it was 

 quite young. But since over a hundred 

 quail had been successfully reared in 

 the garden last season, we decided to 

 take a chance on the tenth cat. There 

 was good reason for sparing its life. 

 About a hundred of our young mallards 

 recently had raided our neighbor's onion 

 patch and he had called to comp!ain 

 about them in a friendly way, and it 

 seemed to be hardly fair to slaughter his 

 little black cat on suspicion. 



The quail were moved to the garden. 

 But in an evil moment when the keeper 

 was engaged in the rearing field with his 

 pheasants the little black cat got busy. 



