THE GAME BREEDER 



113 



George Grinnell had some birds in this 

 state which did so well, and became so 

 tame they would follow the plough, and 

 after he turned them over to Mr. John 

 Wallace, the veteran taxidermist, the 

 latter found that they would bother him 

 while he was spading his garden, as 

 they searched for the insects that were 

 turned up." 



There should be no possible objection 

 to experiments in the domestication of 

 any species of grouse or other game. 

 We are inclined to believe that domesti- 

 cation is not the best method of grouse 

 breeding. So long, however, as it is legal 

 and fashionable for state game wardens 

 to raid people who have game birds or 

 eggs in their possession for breeding 

 purposes and to even seize mounted 

 specimens (legally obtained) in the taxi- 

 dermists' shops, and to generally create 

 a reign of terror among those who would 

 do anything practical or profitable, we 

 may expect the grouse to vanish because 

 no one will look after the birds prop- 

 erly. To experiment it is necessary to 

 have birds and eggs. 



There is a far better way of making 

 and keeping the grouse abundant, cheap 

 for sport and as articles of food. This 

 has been tried in Scotland with the red 

 grouse and there can be no possible doubt 

 that the kind of practical protection 

 given to grouse on the moors of Scotland 

 if given a trial on the sage plains and 

 on the prairies and farms in America, 

 would result in a permanent abundance 

 of all species of grouse as a cheap food 

 supply for all of the people. 



What is needed is some big grouse 

 ranches where the birds are properly 

 looked after, just as sheep are looked 

 after on sheep ranches and as cattle are 

 looked after on cattle ranches. 



It is significant that it is legal in 

 America to have cattle ranches and sheep 

 ranches and even pheasant ranches, 

 where pheasant have been made so abun- 

 dant that advertisers in The Game 

 Breeder are able to furnish hundreds of 

 thousands of pheasants and millions of 

 pheasant eggs every year to those who 

 may wish to rear the birds or to sell 

 them as food. When the laws made 

 pheasant breeding a crime and those who 

 reared these birds abundantly on the 



farms at Allamuchy, New Jersey, were 

 fined thousands of dollars because they 

 sent some of the food to the markets, 

 there were only a few pheasants in 

 America, and when the game keepers 

 were discharged and the pheasant indus- 

 try was given up in New Jersey it seemed 

 likely that this food industry would 

 come to an end. 



Dr. Fisher will be pleased to learn, 

 no doubt, that as soon as it became legal 

 to have wild ducks, readers of The 

 Game Breeder quickly produced many 

 hundreds of thousands of wild ducks 

 and millions of wild duck eggs already 

 have been sold in America. The writer 

 produced several tons of wild ducks one 

 year on a place where there was no 

 water for ducks until an artificial pond 

 was made. The Game Conservation So- 

 ciety is well equipped to produce prairie 

 grouse, sharp-tailed grouse and ruffed 

 grouse, and if Dr. Fisher will tell us 

 where it can procure a few hundred 

 birds or a few dozen birds, it will quick- 

 ly furnish a complete demonstration of 

 grouse breeding in a wild state and in 

 captivity and the demonstration will be 

 carried forward as all the demonstra- 

 tions of the society are to the point of 

 harvesting the food crop by shooting over 

 dogs. In this way our demonstration 

 with two species of quail was carried 

 out to the point where a few Gambel's 

 quail and a few bob-whites were prop- 

 erly (not otherwise) harvested and the 

 triumph of the more game and fewer 

 game laws movement was fittingly cele- 

 brated when two species of quail were 

 served at a luncheon in New York where 

 a little red wine also was served with 

 no fear of police interference. 



Egg Sales and Shipments. 



A few years ago large numbers of 

 pheasant and wild duck eggs were 

 shipped from the Eastern States to Cali- 

 fornia and other Western States. We 

 had records of as many as 5,000 eggs 

 shipped from New England to the West 

 with good results. This year it seems 

 likely the big Western ranches will pro- 

 duce the most eggs and that many thou- 

 sands of eggs will be shipped to the 

 Eastern States. 



