Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I NEW YORK SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1904. j 
No. 346 Bkoadway, Nbw Yokk. 
Six Months, $2. j » . : L 
REARING WILDFOWL. 
Sooner or later the subject of the domestication and 
artificial rearing of game birds and wildfowl is quite sure 
to take an important part in the thoughts of American 
sportsmen. It is time now that the matter should receive 
consideration, and that sportsmen all over the country 
should do their part toward pushing forward an idea 
which ultimately is certain to be generally taken up and 
when taken up to greatly benefit those who use the shotgun. 
As has already been said, wild ducks are artificially 
reared in various parts of England, and on a considerable 
scale. For example, Sir Richard Graham on his estate 
at Netherby in Cumberland has reared 10,000 wild ducks 
in a season. Only 200 or 300 wild ducks are kept to lay, 
which they do chiefly in the woods, nesting in a natural 
manner. The remainder of the eggs are imported from 
the counties of Hertfordshire and Norfolk, from which 
come 7,000 or 8,000 eggs, carefully packed with hay in 
baskets in, lots of about 100. 
When they reach their destination, they are given over 
to keepers and helpers, separated and set under hens, 12 
eggs to a hen. Incubators have been used, but since it is 
necessary to give the ducklings to a mother to brood, 
there is no special gain in the use of incubators, except 
that these are sometimes useful for weak young birds 
when first hatched. 
While the hens are setting, a large grass field is 
selected, carefully fenced with wire to keep out vermin, 
and the coops for the 300 hens are put out in the field. 
As each brood hatches, the ducklings in baskets with the 
mother hen are carried to the field, and each family is 
established in its home. The birds are fed four times 
a day, and are given water in shallow pans for drinking, 
but not for bathing. But when about three weeks old, 
shallow pools only eight or ten feet across are prepared, 
and in these the ducklings swim, wash, and play. Much 
of the time of the youngsters is spent hunting for insects 
through the grass, and as they grow older they are more 
and more disposed to neglect their foster mothers. Early 
in life they are fed largely on wetted corn meal, and later 
eat the whole corn. When about six weeks old the young 
ducks are moved from the field to the places where they 
are to be permanently. Three of these duck homes are on 
streams that run through the estate. One is almost in the 
center of a wood. 
About a hundred years ago large reservoirs were con- 
structed at Tring, and these have always been frequented 
by wild ducks of various sorts. It is only about fourteen 
years ago that artificial rearing of ducks began there. 
The eggs used are gathered on the spot, and somewhat 
after the method recently described in Forest and 
Stream as practiced by Mr. George Irwin at Chautauqua 
Lake fifty or sixty years ago. An area of water, marshy 
ground, and water plants is inclosed by a netting. Wild 
birds are trapped, and, having had their wings clipped, 
are turned loose in the inclosure. The eggs laid are 
gathered and set under hens, and when the broods are 
hatched they are taken to their field as already described. 
At six weeks old these birds are taken to the waterside, 
and there are still kept in an inclosure. They fly at from 
ten weeks to three months old. The success had in rear- 
ing the wild birds is extraordinary. About 90 per cent, 
of the eggs hatch, and the birds do not seem to be 
troubled by any epidemic or disease of any sort. 
The success obtained in the cases mentioned has led 
more and more owners of estates to go into the artificial 
rearing of wild ducks, and there probably has not been 
a time within a century when inland wildfowl shooting in 
Britain was so good as it is to-day. The shooting, except 
that already described as from "gazes," is largely from 
what are called "butts" — another form of blind similar 
to what grouse are shot from — and the shooting is what 
we in America would call "pass" shooting — that is to say, 
at birds flying overhead. 
What has been done in England can be done in Amer- 
ica, and undoubtedly will be, when anybody is sufficiently 
interested in the matter to take it up in earnest. 
- For a number of years a few persons in various parts 
of the United States have been rearing wild ducks and 
geese for use as decoys, the species chosen being chiefly 
the mallard, the dusky duck, and the Canada goose. At 
present an engineer in St. Joseph, Mo., is engaged in 
breeding wild mallard ducks, which he sells as decoys. 
Such examples show the entire feasibility of engaging in 
the artificial rearing of wildfowl on a large scale, and 
nothing more is required than an expansion of what has 
already been put in practice to enormously increase the 
wild duck supply in the United States. We believe that 
the artificial rearing of wildfowl on State and National 
reserves will some day give the gunners of the United 
States shooting somewhat like that of old times. 
THE MONTEZUMA NET SCANDAL. 
The old Montezuma fishing net bounty scandal has 
come to the front again as an element of local politics. 
The scandal grew out of the bounty on forbidden fishing 
nets. In the late 90's, at a time when there was a much 
smaller force of protectors than now, many persons who 
were interested in the protection of inland waters from 
the fish poacher, advocated a law paying a bounty to any 
person who might seize and destroy nets that were being 
illegally used. The advocates of the measure urged the 
matter so strenuously that the old Davis Commission 
consented to the passage of the measure, and the authori- 
ties believed that a sufficient safeguard was placed around 
the act to prevent any fraud. They found out their mis- 
take, however, within the next eight months, and the act 
was repealed. 
The law provided that a bounty of from $2.50 to $10 
should be paid on each net, according to size, by the 
county treasurer, and gave a part to the informant. No 
sooner was the law promulgated than its revenue yielding 
possibilities were recognized, and numerous patriots ad- 
dressed themselves with unbounded enthusiasm to the 
enterprise of fish protection. Their ingenious scheme was 
to manufacture nets out of barrel hoops and mosquito 
netting, and other like inexpensive raw material, the 
whole affair costing a few cents, and then planting them 
out in the waters, "seizing" them, and turning them in for 
the bounties. We have not at hand the figures, but the 
amounts thus paid out from county treasuries were 
stupendous. Yates county paid $20,000, Cayuga $75,000, 
Wayne a little less than Cayuga, Monroe $25,000, and 
Niagara and Erie "too much to compute." In each in- 
stance a town clerk or a justice of the peace was impli- 
cated, as the party seizing nets must bring them before 
one of the two town officials, who gave a certificate to the 
county treasurer. When the fraud was discovered some 
of the humbler agents in the scheme went to jail; but the 
bigger rascals escaped. 
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS PARK. 
The Rocky Mountains Park originally comprised but 
a small territory, but it has recently been so much en- 
larged that now it equals in area the States of Connecti- 
cut and Rhode Island, and is thus about two-fifths larger 
than our Yellowstone Park. 
It is a startling rebuke to the United States that while 
we have been talking vaguely about the importance of 
enlarging the Yellowstone Park, of setting aside game 
refuges in the forest reserves, and of doing various other 
things of great importance, the Canadians, without saying 
anything about it, have more than twenty times enlarged 
the area of their National Park, and have set on foot in it 
a zoological garden, or animal paddock, which must be 
quite as interesting as the one we have in the Yellowstone. 
Americans, Canadians, and all others interested in pre- 
serving untouched the few genuinely wild spots that still 
remain on this continent, will read with interest Mr. 
Douglas's account of the Rocky Mountains Park. 
LOST ARTS. 
A chapter might be written on the lost arts in the field 
of sports. Some have been lost because the game on 
which they were practiced has disappeared. No one 
shoots wild pigeons nowadays because there are no 
pigeons to shoot; nor runs buffalo because there are no 
buffalo. Wild turkey shooting and antelope hunting are 
among the arts that are obsolescent because the game is 
so scarce or is so closely protected that few can take part 
in its pursuit. Other arts have been lost because, being 
no longer approved by public sentiment nor consonant 
with the desirable protection of species, they are pro- 
hibited. Among these are the hounding of deer and deer 
jacking, or hunting with a light at night. It is within 
the memory of the older deer hunter that jacking on the 
Adirondack lakes and hounding in many sections of the 
country favorable to that pursuit, were commonly prac- 
ticed, and were regarded as perfectly legitimate means 
of game winning. Now they have disappeared so widely 
that the great majority of the younger sportsmen know 
nothing of them except by hearsay from their elders. In 
place of deer jacking we have a new art of flash-lighting 
the game wtih a camera ; and of this 1 latest development 
in the pursuit of the wild creatures, it may be said that it 
requires for its success more skill, exacts more patience, 
and yields a more lasting reward, than the old art of 
night hunting with a gun. There is pictured in our sup- 
plement this week a very happy achievement of the night 
hunter of deer with a camera. 
RIFLE, AX AND PLOW. 
As A complement of the squirrel barking discussion, we 
have transcribed Audubon's account of the "Kentucky 
Sports" of his day; and next week will be given his rela- 
tion of another meeting with Daniel Boone, this time in 
Missouri. These pictures of early pioneer life are ex- 
tremely interesting. They bring before us vividly a hardy 
race of adventurous and bold spirited men, in whose 
hands the rifle was only incidentally an implement of 
sport,, but primarily and chiefly one of actual everyday 
usefulness and necessity. It was the rifle and the pio- 
neer's knowledge of how to use it that made possible the 
exploration and settlement of the continent. The advanc- 
ing hosts lived on the country. If they had not known 
how to shoot, and to shoot true to the mark, the subju- 
gation of the wilderness and the forward movement of the 
line of settlement westward and to the southwest would 
have progressed but haltingly. With the rifle of the pio- 
neer went the ax and the plow. All three were homely, 
prosaic tools devoted to a common purpose; and each 
contributed its share to the marking out of Territories and 
the up-building of States. We are accustomed to regard 
rifle shooting for the most part in its relation to warfare ; 
but the rifleman of to-day who emulates the skill of these 
former generations of sharpshooters, is practicing a sport 
which will always have a high place in American esteem 
because of the part it had in . the development of the • 
continent in times of peace. 
A MINNESOTA DECISION: 
The Minnesota Supreme Court has just handed down a 
decision which has been awaited with genuine anxiety by 
the authorities. It had to do with the constitutionality 
of the statute providing for cumulative penalties for the 
illegal possession of game. The two defendants had been 
fined $20,000 each, and one of them 300 days in jail and 
the other 200 days. The penalties they claimed to be 
excessive; and it was contended in their behalf that the 
possession of 2,485 ducks should be held a single offense, 
and that the law should be construed to attach to it the 
single penalty of $10. The statute, however, specifically 
makes the fine from $10 to $25 for each bird, and the 
Supreme Court, in sustaining the lower courts, has up- 
held the constitutionality of the law. Executive Agent 
Fullertou regards this outcome of the case as one of the 
most important events in the history of game protection 
in Minnesota. It is not difficult to imagine what the anti- 
sale law would amount to if for thousands of ducks in 
possession the penalty were but a paltry $10 fine. There 
is, by the way, no more enthusiastic advocate of the 
Forest and Stream Platform Plank than Agent Fuller- 
ton, who has witnessed in his own State the beneficial 
effect of the law forbidding at all seasons, the sale of cer- 
tain game. 
The movement by certain clubs which have their hunt- 
ing grounds in Canada to improve their guide service is 
progressing. The plan is outlined in the circulars printed 
011 page 115. That letter of instruction and information 
for guides is manifestly written from a full experience in 
the wilds with guides good and bad; and it deserves the 
wider circulation here given to it. No one can read it 
without realizing anew -how much the guide has to do 
with the pleasure of a hunting trip. Much of the instruc- 
tion given in the nine paragraphs — in particular that re- 
lating to the keeping of the camp — is pertinent for the 
amateur camper, and may well be adopted as rules to 
govern an outing in the woods. 
Mr. W. B. Mershon complains of the disappointing 
scarcity of salmon this year on the Cascapedia. We 
would be glad to hear from other rivers as to the salmon 
supply and the agencies affecting it. 
