200 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 12, 1903. 
Previous Faflures tn Plaatiog. 
Some instances are reported where successful plant- 
ings have been made, but the greater number have 
proved entire failures. This is no doubt due to the 
fact that the seed which is ordinarly obtained from the 
Indians, is treated in such a manner as to Icill the genu. 
It is allowed to ferment during the curing process or 
to become too dry, either of which conditions seri- 
ously injures its vitality. Practically all attempts to 
germinate thoroughly dried seed have proved unsuc- 
cessful. 
Plantings Made in 1902. 
In order to determine the best methods to be used 
in curing, storing, and planting the seed, a series of 
plantings was made both in northern Minnesota and 
at Washington, D. C. The seed was collected fresh 
and planted in tubs of mud sunk into the muddy bot- 
toms where wild rice naturally grows. The tubs were 
covered with fine screens to prevent other seeds get- 
ting in and to prevent the removal or destruction of 
the seed planted. These plantings were examined from 
time to time. No signs of germination were noticed 
in the autumn immediately following the planting, but 
at the time the naturally sown seed around the tubs 
began to grow, in the spring of 1903, the seed in the 
tubs was found to be germinating freely, thus show- 
ing that when the seed is planted in a fresh condition 
and never allowed to heat or dry it will grow well. 
Plantings were also made by Mr. D. W. Hallam, 
of Dover, N, H., in a number of ponds where wild rice 
had never grown. In some the seed was planted in the 
fall of 1902, and in others in the spring of 1903. These 
ponds were visited the second week in June, 1903, and 
the plants were found to be growing well in all cases. 
Storing Seed. 
Mr. Hallam has suceeded in keeping wild rice seed 
over winter with its vitality uninjured. The following 
extract from a letter from him under date of April 15, 
1903, shows how this was done: 
"The wild rice was ordered with instructions to ship 
as soon as gathered without drying. I received it on 
the 27th day of October, 1902. The barrel was placed 
on end in the shade out-of-doors, the head taken out, 
with about a bushel of seed, and a faucet was put in at 
the bottom to drain the water. The seed was weighted 
with a cover, and cold water enough to fill the barrel 
put in each morning and drained out daily. The bar- 
rel was kept full. On the 5th of December ice began 
to form on the inside of the barrel. Care was taken 
in adding water so as not to burst the barrel. By the 
25th of December there was a frozen mass of ice and 
seed that filled the barrel. No water was then added 
until the middle of March, and then only enough to 
keep the barrel full, for as yet there Avas quite a mass 
of ice and seed. Since April began it has been neces- 
sary to change the water daily. Our water here is 
quite cold, 45 to 55 degrees F. I have sent a sample 
bottle." 
The seed received from Mr, Hallam with this letter 
had germinated and had sprouts from one-half to one 
inch in length when it arrived. Later, a larger quantity 
of seed, about two quarts, was received from Mr. 
Hallam, of which 75 per cent, had germinated. 
It seems from the results of the experiments referred 
to that wild rice can be successfully grown from seed 
either by sowing the fresh seed as soon as it is gath- 
ered or by keeping it in water over the winter and 
sowing in the spring. In most instances it will no 
doubt be found more satisfactory to sow in the fall, 
providing the place sown can be protected from water- 
fowl and other animals likely to destroy the seed, since 
such a practice will avoid the trouble of keeping the 
seed wet during the winter. When the seed is kept 
in water, either for storage or transportation, the 
water must be changed frequently or aerated, as fer- 
mentation sets in if it is allowed to .stand for any length 
of time. 
The seed can be shipped or stored for a short time by 
packing it in dampened moss or excelsior, and this is a 
convenient way to prepare it for shipment. It is neces- 
sary to separate the seed from the moss or excelsior 
by layers of cloth, as it cannot conveniently be sown 
when mixed with either. The package, when made up 
thus for shipment, must not be too thick or too tight 
to prevent some slight circulation of air, or fermenta- 
tion will at once set in. 
Suggestions for Harvesting, Storing and Planting. 
(i) Orders should be placed before the harvesting 
season is commenced, so that the seed itja,y be shipped 
immediately after it is gathered. 
(2") Care should be taken to gather only fully ma- 
t.ired seed. 
(3) Seed should not be allowed to dry when it is to 
'be used for propagation. For shipment or storage it 
must be kept wet, with frequent changes of water or 
packed in damp moss or excelsior in ventilated pack- 
ages. 
(a) Wherever practicable, autumn plantmg is reconv 
mended. 
Care should be used in selecting the place for 
planting seed to get the proper depth of water — from 
T to feet, with a thick layer of soft mud underneath— 
and the water should be neither quite stagnant nor too 
swiftly moving. ^_ 
The Carcajott. 
About that carcajou. I wonder if you are right? My 
query is because our old standby, Mayne Reid, was, on 
the whole, a pretty reliable duck on natural history, and 
it is my intprossion that in one of his books, I think the 
"Desert Home," he speaks of both the carcajou and the 
Avolvcrine as two different beasts, his description of the 
former being distinctly one of the big cats of jaguar 
propf nsilies. Ever read it? J. P- T. 
[Carcajou was a name given to several species of 
carnivora, just as has been the term catamount. Carca- 
jou sometimes meant cougar, or Canada lynx, or even 
badger. Most often, however, it was used for t^e 
-yvolverine {CuiQ hscus).] 
Our Batrachians and Reptiles. — VIII 
With the exception of the snakes, there is no other 
group of reptiles which has taken a greater hold on the 
popular imagination than the members of the order 
Lcricata, a group represented among living animals only 
by the family Crocodylidce. These large animals, com- 
monly known as crocodiles, alligators, caymans, gavials, 
and jacares, are common inhabitants of the streams, 
lakes, and swamps of the tropical portions of the earth, 
where their unprepossessing appearance and disagreeable 
habits make them at once fit subjects for almost supersti- 
tious dread. 
We have all read of the crocodiles of the Nile and the 
Ganges. Along the former stream they were held in 
veneration and worshipped as deities by the inhabitants 
of some cities. During life they were attended and fed 
in temples erected in their honor, and after death they 
were embalmed and laid away with all the ceremony due 
to a god. In other cities in the same region the inhabi- 
tants, evidently with a better knowledge of the crocodile's 
real character, regarded them as the embodiment of evil, 
and destroyed them whenever possible. Along the 
Ganges, even at the present time, the crocodiles are said 
to enjoy a certain amount of protection from the natives, 
but, thanks, to the influence of English civiHzation, they 
are no longer fed on such tidbits as tender babies or 
beautiful young women. 
There can be no doubt that in some parts of the world, 
and under some circumstances, some of 
the crocodilians are dangerous beasts, 
and do not hesitate to attack other crea- 
tures as large as themselves, or even 
man. There are numerous, apparently 
well authenticated, accounts of such on- 
slaughts in the writings _ of various 
travelers, but it must be believed that in 
most cases the animals are not as bad 
as they are painted. 
The family Crocodylidas is represented 
in the United States by two species, _ an 
alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), 
and a crocodile (Crocodilus anieri- 
cmus). The latter inhabits only the 
lower end of the Florida peninsula, from 
Lake Worth southward ; the range of the 
former extends from North Carolina 
to Texas, but is limited to a compara- 
tively narrow belt along the sea coast, 
except on the larger streams, which it 
ascends for a considerable distance. It 
has been found on the Mississippi River 
as far up as Jefferson county, Miss. In 
the swamps of Florida, Georgia, Missis- 
sippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas it • 
abounded until the value of its skin and 
teeth led to indiscriminate destruction. 
In habits both the alligator and the 
crocodile are eminently aquatic, but 
may, and often do, leaA^e the water to 
bask in the sunshine. In times of ex- 
treme drouth the}' may bury themselves 
in the mud and lie in a semi-dormant 
condition until their pond is filled again ; 
but usually they travel arcoss country 
to the nearest body of water. The 
crocodile is more partial to brackish 
water, and lives nearer the sea, as a 
rule, than the alligator. 
In general appearance the two animals 
resemble each other very closely, but 
differ in many minor characteristics. 
The head of the alligator is broader 
and heavier, and the outline of the sides 
from the back of the jaws to the snout 
is rather strongly convex, in contrast 
with which the same outline in the croc- 
odile is straight, or even concave. In 
the alligator, the teeth of the lower jaw, 
when the mouth is closed, are completely 
concealed, as they are received within 
the upper jaw, but in the crocodile one 
of the larger tusks of the lower jaw 
passes outside of the upper lip and is plainly visible from 
the side. In the crocodile there is a sort of crest or 
high ridge of large scales along the back of the hind 
leg, a character which is only slightly or not at all de- 
veloped in the alligator. 
Living specimens in the water may be distinguished 
by the fact that the upper surface of the alligator's head 
is nearly flat, while the crocodile has a strong ridge run- 
ning lengthwise from the nostrils back nearly to the eyes. 
The presence of the crocodile in the United States was 
first made known by Dr. Jeffries Wyman, who secured 
a skull of the animal from Florida as early as 1870. Five 
years later, Mr. Wm. F. Hornaday visited its haunts 
and in a small creek near Biscayne Bay succeeded In 
shooting a large male fourteen feet in length, and in the 
weeks following collected quite a series of specimens. Ac- 
cording to his account (American Naturalist, Vol. IX., p. 
498, 1870), the animal is quite rare, is very difficult to 
approach, and is extremely tenacious of life. They are 
much more savage than the alligator, and the males fight 
each other to such an extent that almost every full grown 
individual shows marks of many conflicts ; the teeth are 
shattered, tails and even jaws are bitten off, and the 
skin is covered with great scars. 
The females produce their eggs in the early spring, and 
place them in layers in a shallow cavity, which they scoop 
out in the bank of the stream or pool. Each layer of 
eggs is covered with grass and leaves, and over the whole 
a considerable amount of decaying material is placed. 
The number of eggs is stated to be from twenty to thirty. 
The heat of the fermenting pile of damp vegetation 
hatches the eggs in about thirty days. What becomes of 
the young after they emerge from the nest is not 
recorded. 
The food of the crocodile consists of such mammals, 
birds, and other animals as it can capture in the water or 
near its margins. The prey is dragged beneath the sur- 
face and either eaten as soon as it is dead or is kept until 
putrefaction is well sidvance^ mi then pulled a§hore 
aind devoured. 
The habits of the alligator are comparatively well 
known, a fact doubtless due to the former abundance 
of the animal throughout the greater part of its range, 
and the persistency with which it has been hunted. In 
the preceding paragraphs, however, mention has been 
made of the general life history with sufficient exactness,., 
for there is very little to make it remarkable, and only 
the food and the egg laying habits remain to be described. 
The food consists of nearly every kind of animal mat- 
ter which the alligator can capture. Fish are caught in 
the water and great destruction is wrought among the 
wading and swimming water fowl. Small animals of any 
kind feeding along the bank are liable to be rushed at 
and captured, and it is said that large animals like cat- 
tle and horses have been seized by the nose as they 
drank. Whatever the prey, it is drawn down under the 
water and held until life is extinct, and is then dragged 
ashore and eaten. In the winter the alligator passes a 
portion of the time in hibernation, and as a preparation 
for this event is said by old hunters to swallow pebbles 
and pieces of wood. These, of course, are indigestible, 
but they serve to keep the walls of the stomach apart 
and reduce the pangs of hunger to a minimum; in the 
spring they are ejected as rounded and polished bits of 
stone and wood. 
The time of mating has not been recorded, but in April 
or May the females repair to some secluded spot for the 
purpose of laying their eggs. They scrape together a 
low mound of decaying vegetation and on it deposit a 
Fig. 1 — Head of the American Crocodile. 
Fig. 2. — ^Head of Alligator mississippiensis. 
layer of eggs and cover them carefully with more vege- , 
tation. A day or two later a second layer of eggs is placed 
above the first and covered in the same manner. This 
continues until from 100 to 200 eggs have been deposited 
and the mound has reached the height of two or three 
feet. During the period of incubation, a process which 
is effected both by the heat of the sun and the decay of 
the pile of humus, the female remains in the immediate- 
neighborhood of the nest, and is said to defend it with 
vigor against any intruders. The eggs, which are about 
the size of those of a goose, are protected by a strong, 
rough shell, and are so placed in the nest that the , 
slightest disturbance will make them rattle about and 
give warning to the mother. As soon as the young are 
hatched they dig their way out of the nest and are con- 
ducted to the water by their mother. She feeds them • 
on food which she disgorges and to the best of her ability • 
protects her tender offspring from their natural enemies, 
the turtles, fishes, and water birds. Nevertheless great 
numbers of the young alligators perish, probably not 
more than two or three per cent, reaching maturity. They 
soon forsake their parent, and probably take no further 
interest in her movements. Growth in this animal is 
very slow. At the age of fifteen years they are only 
two feet long, and a specimen twelve feet in length isi . 
probably at least seventy-five years old. ; 
It is only within recent years that the alligator has ! 
come into prominence as an article of commerce. When | 
Josh Billings stated of the animal that it "was made for 
sum useful purpose, but, like the muskeeter, the bedbugg, 
and the kokroach, their usefulness has been karefully hid 
from us," he was certainly not aware that the traffic in. 
mounted specimens, teeth, and hides would soon amount 
to some hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. | 
Such, however, is the case, or at least was the case until ' 
the indiscriminate destruction of both young and old ' 
practically exterminated the animal in many localities | 
where it once abounded. It has been estimated that in the 
fourteen years between 1880 and 1894 in the State of 
I'lorida alo^e 2,soofioa alli^ton wer« killed. In addition 
