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THE GAME BREEDER 



Bob Acres. 



Two Kentuckians, Lawrence Jones and 

 J. Lyle Bayliss of Lexington, Ky., have 

 bought the island Bob Acres and intend 

 to convert it into a sanctuary for wild 

 fowl. It comprises some 10,000 acres, 

 and its new owners expect to make of 

 it an immense heronry. They have also 

 asked the Louisiana Conservation Com- 

 mission to set aside Lake Piegneu, which 

 adjoins their property, as a water resort 

 for ducks, which flock there in the winter 

 season. 



All bird-lovers will rejoice at this new 

 refuge for water fowl and under the 

 name of Bob Acres the new sanctuary 

 will remain a permanent memorial of one 

 of the best-loved personalities of the 

 American stage. 



Bob Acres was named by the actor Joe 

 Jefferson when he purchased the island in 

 Iberia Parish for a winter home. If our 

 memory serves us rightly he and his 

 friend, the late President Cleveland, used 

 to shoot wild ducks there. We believe 

 if they were living they would like to see 

 the place conducted as a shooting and 

 food-producing plant. 



An Interesting Letter from Alberta, 

 Canada. 



Editor Game Breeder : 



Received the acknowledgment of my 

 letter and also a long letter from Mr. 

 Huntington concerning game conditions 

 in this country. 



At present it is not feasible to get per- 

 mission to export grouse. I hope to get 

 me an enlarged edition of the old mar- 

 ket hunters quail net next summer to 

 trap Hungarian partridges with. Think 

 the only time that chickens could be 

 trapped in any number would be in Au- 

 gust. Then a man should have a pen 

 with plenty of cover in it to keep them 

 until they are grown. 



Will send you three subscriptions scat- 

 tered round the country I have the most 

 interest in. These men can wield a great 

 deal of influence if they only will. More 

 than that, I have often heard my father 

 say that all quail needed to make them 

 plentiful in southern Ohio was plenty of 

 feed, cover and water. The other two 



should know this to be a fact as we hunt- 

 ed together where we had plenty of 

 quail and in most of the state there were 

 none. 



I am afraid the sharp-tailed grouse 

 would not be a satisfactory game pre- 

 serve bird. He doesn't migrate, but he 

 often ranges over a country miles across. 

 We do not need to plant coverts in order 

 to make them plentiful here at present. 

 This is a very rolling prairie country cut 

 up by coulees. The coulees have big 

 thickets of native poplar (quaking asp 

 probably) and white spruce in them. 

 Scattered in patches all over the prairie 

 are small clumps of a small berry bearing 

 bush from twelve to eighteen inches tall. 

 This bush furnishes a berry for winter 

 feed and a fine nesting place for both 

 chicken and ducks. In the small draws 

 we have clumps of native willows, haw- 

 thorns, choke cherries and wild roses. 

 While on the tops of the hills and dry 

 hillsides we have another berry bearing 

 bush, which the natives gall Bullberry. 



Crows and magpies are the real game 

 enemies, especially the former. One of 

 my neighbors said that two years ago the 

 crows broke up about twenty ducks nests 

 on two hundred acres. At present only 

 about one-fifteenth of this land is occu- 

 pied. It would be impossible for any one 

 individual to make much headway 

 against Crows. 



My partner proposes that we feed the 

 crows until they come to a place regu- 

 larly and then give them a bait of grain 

 soaked in cyanide of potash. _We would 

 be pleased to get any information you 

 can give us about the control of these 

 two pests without too great an outlay. 



A friend of mine in England has been 

 sending me copies of the Field and Game 

 Keeper. They are actually, killing down 

 the game birds in England because the 

 birds are too plentiful. England has just 

 the laws you advocate. If a small coun- 

 try like England can do this, what could 

 our own country do, if we could get rid 

 of the doctor and his money? It also 

 seems to me that game farms such as you 

 advocate and the insectivorous birds go 

 hand in hand. 



One of the copies of The Game Breed- 

 er gives directions for telling the sex of 



