AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOK THE 
TTa/r m , Grarden, and. Household. 
“AGRICULTURE IS TIIE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AN1> MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN , 9t — Washington. 
cmiASGE judd & co., ) ESTABLISHED IN 1842. t $i.so pek amui, is adyakce. 
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. I -j SINGLE HtIMBEK, 15 CENTS. 
Office, 245 BROADWAY. ) Published also in German at $1.50 a Year. ( 4Copiesfor $5 ; 10 for $12; 20 or more, $i each. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in October, 1870, by Orange Judd & Co., at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLUME XXIX.-No.il 
NEW SERIES—No. 286. 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
SEASON .—Drawn by H. W. Herrick. 
■Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
Witli the advance of the season our marshes 
and copses, quiet woods and plains, from which 
the husbandman lias disappeared for-the time, 
are more or less filled with gleaners of the har¬ 
vest of nuts and seeds, which wild Nature pro¬ 
vides for her children, or of the residue of 
the imperfectly garnered products of cultivated 
fields. Among these busy denizens of the free 
country and the green wood, now sere and rus¬ 
set, are birds and beasts, many of which are 
excellent as food, and all of which would mul¬ 
tiply to their own destruction were they not 
held in check by birds and beasts of prey, 
which, in the providential ordering of nature, 
have a definite work to do in keeping down 
this excess of life. The quick shot that stops 
the flight and the joyous life, really cheats the 
fox or the hawk of his supper, while it adds 
not a little to the sum total of human happiness. 
Great numbers of our autumn and winter 
game-birds are migratory and do not breed witli 
us. The w T ild goose, next to the turkey and 
swan, is our finest game»bird. It rarely breeds 
within the bounds of the United States. The 
same is true of all the ducks but one, but none 
of the gallinaceous birds are properly migra¬ 
tory. Hence these are protected by stringent 
laws, which should be enforced and sustained 
by public opinion, or the sport and the benefit 
of wild game will be lost forever. After the 
breeding season lias passed and tlie young have 
grown, in a country like ours, game of all kinds 
must take their chances. Though man should 
be their best friend during the summer, and un¬ 
til, by statute and usage, “ the law is off,” lie 
will be found their worst enemy when the re¬ 
duction of their numbers contributes so greatly 
to his enjoyment as a matter of sport, as well 
as to the gratification of his palate, to say noth¬ 
ing of the highest pleasure of the true sports¬ 
man, that of sending gifts of game to his friends, 
which are sure to be highly valued by them. 
