FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



283 



moose skin moccasins advertised, which too 

 often are not imitations. 



During the rly and mosquito season the 

 moose repairs to the lakes. There he seems 

 to lose his extreme shyness, and will allow 

 the close approach of man, rather than leave 

 his mud bath and expose his body to the 

 myriads of sharp billed insects. It is at 

 this time the Indian gets in his work. The 

 meat is too poor to eat, so the moose are 

 shot for their hides and the carcasses left to 

 rot. 



The meanest and most despicable hunter 

 of all is the trophy hunter. He generally 

 is a professional man from the city in search 

 of decorations for his office. He comes with 

 his guides and begins by killing the first 

 pair of antlers he sees, the last and all be- 

 tween. Then he takes the best of his kill 

 and has it mounted, leaving 4 or 5 carcasses 

 to rot. I have it from authentic source 

 that last fall 4 carcasses of monster moose 

 were left near a camp of New York doctors. 

 Only 2 heads were taken. Heads are gen- 

 erally sneaked out over the Duluth and 

 Winnipeg Railroad. A game warden, with 

 an eye to business, can have rich picking 

 by watching for such baggage. 



Nye Jordan, Sutton's Bay, Mich. 



WILD RICE. 



Our gun club, at considerable expense, 

 several years ago, procured 500 pounds of 

 wild rice. This was sown in the month of 

 October, in some 20 different lakes. None 

 of it grew. Should feel obliged to anyone 

 who will tell me whether wild rice 2 or 

 more years old will germinate. Will good 

 seed grow if sown in spring? Will it thrive 

 in water impregnated with alkali? What 

 are the most favorable conditions for its 

 propagation? 



W. F. C, Vernon, B. C. 



The above questions were referred to an 

 authority on the subject, who answers: 



Wild rice seed 2 years old should grow 

 as well as any other, if it has been kept dry 

 and sound. I should sow the seed in the 

 spring, after the water had warmed. It 

 grows best where there is a muddy bottom, 

 and in shallow water. I do not know 

 whether it will grow in water impregnated 

 with alkali. I think it would depend on 

 how great the impregnation is, other con- 

 ditions being favorable. 



You find wild rice at its best, in shallow 

 lakes, with muddy bottoms and slow cur- 

 rents. A friend of mine here used to sell 

 large quantities of it, collected by the Ind- 

 ians from the wild rice fields in Northern 

 Wisconsin. For a year or 2 past he has not 

 handled it. He informed me that the con- 

 struction of dams by the lumber companies 

 had so raised the waters where it grew as 

 to drown it out. 



Why owners of wild rice, wishing for a 

 market, should neglect to avail themselves 



of the columns of Recreation, with its 

 large circulation and the character of its 

 readers, is a mystery to me. 



C. L. Valentine, Janesville, Wis. 



OHIO GAME LAWS. 



Ohio is being afflicted with crazy legis- 

 lation relating to its game laws. Her de- 

 mented statesmen passed sentence of death 

 upon bunnie; making it lawful to kill him 

 " all the time." This has licensed a horde 

 of butcher hunters who, on the pretext of 

 hunting rabbits, kill everything they find. 



During the winter months a friend and I 

 fed 3 coveys of quails; working our dogs 

 on them one day each week, then feeding 

 them the other days. After the passage of 

 the rabbit law we missed 14 of these birds, 

 but found the tracks of the men who killed 

 them. So much for the rabbit law. 



Not contented with the damage done by 

 this law, a fool Senator has offered a bill 

 making it lawful to kill quails from Septem- 

 ber 1st to April 1st. Quails of the second 

 hatching are, on September 1st, no larger 

 than sparrows, and the first hatchings are 

 totally unable to cope with the hunter. No 

 true sportsman would think of killing quails 

 sooner than November 15th. We want the 

 season to open November 15th, shooting 

 allowed 4 days a week, 12 birds a day to the 

 gun, and the season extended to December 



3 Ist - 



Still another bill is introduced providing 



that a hunter must obtain consent of farmer 

 before hunting, state kind of game he in- 

 tends to shoot, and at close of day exhibit 

 game to the farmer. A failure to comply 

 forfeits gun, dog, etc. Verily, Ohio is 

 blessed in the fact that her legislature meets 

 only once in 2 years. 



L. A. Moore, Zanesville, O. 



HE IS AFTER DANIEL. 

 In November Recreation I read an ac- 

 count by Daniel Arrowsmith, of his killing 

 an old doe, her 2 fawns, and her yearling 

 doe. He does not tell us if the fawns were 

 does or not, but we must presume they 

 were. He has brazen effrontery to acknowl- 

 edge, in a sportsman's magazine, the killing 

 of does and fawns. In his next article he 

 will be bewailing the disappearance of game 

 and wondering if it, like the passenger pig- 

 eon, has gone to South America. The pig- 

 eons were exterminated by the vandals who 

 followed them from North to South, by the 

 aid of the telegraph; trapped them by the 

 million, with nets; and in their nesting and 

 roosting places destroyed tens of millions 

 by burning sulphur under the trees. The 

 squabs were taken from their nests and 

 shipped to Chicago and other cities. In 

 1867, '68 and ''69, they followed them into 

 Northern Wisconsin. In one of these years 

 the birds roosted in Sauk county, Wis., 

 where I then lived. I was telegraphed to, 

 to know if they were in sufficient numbers 



