148 



THE GAME BREEDER 



farms and preserves there will be more 

 wood-cock. 



It now pays to preserve many small 

 wooded swamps for both wood-duck 

 and wood-cock. The big refuges for 

 game in the South where shooting is 

 prohibited afford safe winter quarters 

 for wood-cock and the bird no longer 

 should be referred to as the vanishing 

 wood-cock. In foreign markets wood- 

 cock are sold in the markets as food. 

 We have no doubt these birds soon will 

 be restored to our American markets as 

 they should be as soon as they become 

 plentiful on game farms and preserves 

 where they are properly looked after. 



Since the birds are migratory and the 

 country is big the sportsmen who do 

 nothing towards practical game preserva- 

 tion will undoubtedly find good wood- 

 cock shooting on public lands and on 

 wild lands which are not posted. They 

 also may find good cock shooting on 

 many farms when they obtain the 

 farmer's permission to shoot. 



It is highly important that all the little 

 ponds and wooded swamps where wood- 

 cock can find food and cover should not 

 be drained. They will not be when it 

 is learned they can be made valuable for 



game. 



WILD ROSES. 



' [One of the best covers for game is a patch of wild roses. The birds will eat the rose 

 hips in. winter. Our readers will be interested in the following from Rural New Yorker.— 

 Editor.] 



The statement of K. that no one 

 should think of planting our wild roses 

 except for some very special purpose, 

 should also, I think, be modified. His 

 general argument would probably be that 

 European or horticultural varieties 

 should generally be planted, a position 

 that we are rapidly progressing away 

 from. If there is only room on the home 

 grounds for a couple of dozen shrubs, 

 perhaps single specimens of particularly 

 beautiful ones would exclude most of 

 the natives. But where any mass effect 

 can be had, the native shrubs should cer- 

 tainly have the preference. Aside from 

 the laurel (which we ought to be able 

 to transplant ourselves, for it is offered 

 ■ by the carload from Southern woods, 

 and than which perhaps nothing in the 

 world is more magnificent in bloom), we 

 have Azaleas, perhaps next to the laurel 

 in beauty, and then an enormous choice 

 between thorns, Viburnums, cornels, 

 elderberry, down to the bright-berried 

 shrubs for winter decoration, than which 

 perhaps none is more brilliant than our 

 common Winter-berry or black alder. I 

 have myself planted Rosa lucida and R. 

 blanda in shrubberies where no culti- 

 vated rose would have taken their place, 

 and where their haws are very decorative 



in autumn. I think many of your read- 

 ers would find it very interesting to start* 

 collections of native plants, and no doubt 

 the variety and beauty of those from 

 which choice could be made would be a 

 revelation to most of them. I am now 

 planning the planting of my own home 

 grounds, which will need some 500 or 

 600 shrubs. Eighty per cent, or more 

 will be native to the Eastern United 

 States. The Arnold Arboretum, Jamai- 

 ca Plain, Mass., is chiefly responsible for 

 calling attention to the beauty and value 

 of our native plants, and anyone inter- 

 ested in the subject should get their 

 bulletins. Ellicott D. Curtis. 



Connecticut. Rural New-Yorker. 



The Game Census. 



Belated returns for the game census 

 still are coming. Members of the Game 

 Conservation Society undoubtedly now 

 own nearly if not quite 200,000 game 

 birds and it is evident they will have 

 over a million if the approaching breed- 

 ing season is a good one. We will have 

 an abundance of game of many species 

 for our game dinners next winter. We 

 hope we can hold all of them in New 

 York. 



