120 



THE GAME BREEDER 



in the Dakotas and Montana, there was 

 an abundance of food and an abund- 

 ance of cover. In Kansas the prairie 

 grass offered concealment and there were 

 so many wild sunflowers that the state 

 was named after them. There were 

 also acres of wild roses, the red hips of 

 which were easily obtained as winter 

 food above the snow, and one of my 

 favorite shooting grounds for sharp- 

 tailed grouse in Montana has a stream 

 flowing through it named the rosebud, 

 after the abundant flowers. 



This little valley, like many others, 

 was a beautiful flower garden, with 

 thousands of wild roses and sunflow- 

 ers and many blooming berry plants, in- 

 cluding wild currants, gooseberries and 

 others. The last time I shot in Kan- 

 sans the farms in many places were 

 closely cultivated ; not a wild sunflower 

 or a wild rose could be seen for many 

 miles and when the stubbles were 

 ploughed under the grouse had neither 

 cover nor food and were an easy prey 

 to their natural enemies and human 

 enemies also, who knew well the prairie 

 grouse is one of the most delicious of 

 our long list of game birds. I am in- 

 clined to agree with those who say that 

 the prairie grouse is our best upland 

 game bird for the table. It is not sur- 

 prising that it vanished from whole 

 counties at a time and that the ornithol- 

 ogists predicted its early extermination^ 



I have pointed out at other times that 

 the introduction of cattle has been fol- 

 lowed by the disappearance of partridges 

 in the Old World and of our quail in 

 America from the lands used for grazing 

 purposes. The extinction of the masked 

 Bob White, it has been said, was due 

 to the abundance of cattle introduced 

 on its ranges. It is not surprising that 

 the grouse of the northern plains van- 

 ished as if by magic when the cattle be- 

 came abundant on a good part of their 

 range and the remaining land was for 

 the most a vast sea of bare earth during 

 the period following the ploughing un- 

 der of the stubbles. I have seen the 

 prairie falcons, one of the worst enem- 

 ies of the grouse, so plentiful that there 

 were.jnany birds always in sight, perched 



on the telegraph and telephone poles 

 or soaring overhead. One can readily im- 

 agine that' no shooting was necessary 

 to cause the extermination of the grouse 

 on such areas and that a little shooting 

 only hastened the inevitable end. 



I am authorized to offer $15.00 a pair 

 for a lot of prairie grouse and these 

 birds undoubtedly can be sold for at 

 least $10 a pair in large lots. I believe 

 the price will remain up until the birds 

 become very abundant and that even 

 then they can be sold at an excellent 

 profit. The eggs of these birds can be 

 sold readily at from $6 to $8 per dozen 

 and probably for more in small lots. The 

 grouse undoubtedly will persist in lay- 

 ing if the first eggs be lifted and sold 

 and it should be an easy matter to make 

 the birds very abundant and profitable 

 by simply providing cover and food on 

 part of the area used for grouse breed- 

 ing. Narrow strips of cover between 

 the fields and across the center of large 

 fields are all that are needed, and the 

 ground so utilized can be made to yield 

 a small fortune to those who first get 

 into the industry of breeding grouse. 

 The laws in a number of good grouse 

 states now permit and encourage such 

 industry and I am quite sure it will not 

 be long before the prairie grouse and 

 the sharp-tailed grouse and their eggs 

 will be offered for sale in the advertis- 

 ing pages of The Game Breeder. I can 

 say for the Game Conservation Society, 

 that it will guarantee splendid results 

 from such publicity. 



We have here an opportunity for 

 money making which I believe is su- 

 perior to the opportunity presented to 

 cattle and sheep ranchers in the days 

 when such industry was at its best. 

 Wheat, corn and other grains can be 

 grown profitably on a grouse ranch and 

 the birds can be raised inexpensively, 

 since they will find much of their food in 

 the stubbles at certain seasons and when 

 these are destroyed they will find 

 abundant food and cover in the narrow 

 strips provided especially for the grouse 

 and which can be made even more at- 

 tractive than the lands were when the- 

 grouse were tremendously abundant;: I- 



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