FINS, FEATHERS AND FUR 
7 
a week during the winter. Our Bemidji Game 
Protective Association has provided shell corn 
for feed in addition to the wheat and this will 
be given to them as the weather conditions may 
suggest. 
Keeping the little pheasants with the mother 
domestic hen seems to be the proper way to 
manage them. They soon became very tame, 
many of them feeding from the hand. I have 
retained the mother domestic hen and with your 
permission and assistance will endeavor to have 
her hatch out another covey of pheasants next 
Spring and care for them in the same way we did 
the others. I would like very much to be able 
to liberate next summer about 100 more of the 
pheasants and feel certain that by making some 
provision to protect them from the deep snows, 
and furnish them with some food, they will pros¬ 
per well. 
“It is a source of some satisfaction and com¬ 
fort to me to realize that these pheasants have 
become a great attraction. They are so tame 
that visitors see them frequently and they fre¬ 
quently remain in the road compelling the au¬ 
tomobiles to slow down. Their beautiful plum¬ 
age is very attractive and tourists go consider¬ 
ably out of their way to see them. 
“In reference to our game refuge. You are 
advised that with one or two exceptions the 
refuge 'has not been violated. There are quite a 
few partridge and we look forward to a great 
many more next year. The ducks this fall re¬ 
mained in Lake Bemidji and Lake Irvine for 
at least six weeks, being an interesting attrac¬ 
tion. There were four swans that remained in 
the northeast portion of Lake Bemidji for nearly 
a month. It is truly wonderful how these birds 
learn so quickly that they are protected in these 
waters. While there were thousands of blue 
bills resting here there was some discussmn as 
to opening the preserve for ten days in the 
latter part of the duck season, but these sug¬ 
gestions were promptly stopped. The fact is 
that with Lake Bemidji and Lake Irvine, which 
has a large bed of rice in it. furnishing a resting 
place for ducks that occasionally leave the re¬ 
fuge and go to outlying lakes, furnished some 
considerable shooting there, and it was soon 
realized that if the ducks in Bemidji or Lake 
Irvine were hunted they would depart at once 
and but few return. 
“From the information I have at hand, it 
would appear there are within our refuge about 
15 deer. They, like the deer in Itasca Park, real¬ 
ize that they are protected within the refuge. I 
am now completing arrangements to have the 
boundaries of the refuge marked with red paint 
in the same manner that the boundaries of the 
hunting limits are marked around Itasca Park. 
With few exceptions, we are having the earnest 
support of this community in making the Bem¬ 
idji Game Refuge a safe and effective game 
breeding and resting place. Within a short time 
wp hooe to be ?ble to make this one of the ad¬ 
ditional attractions of northern Minnesota.—Re¬ 
spectfully, e. e. McDonald.” 
Three hundred thousand lake trout eggs of 
very good quality have been procured from the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries. They were 
supplied from their station at Duluth, Minn. 
INCREASE FISH PROPAGATION 
The unprecedented demand for fish for food on 
account of the war has emphasized the need for 
greatly increased facilities for fish propagation. 
At an annual cost of less than $50,000 Minnesota 
hatches and distributes an average of over two 
hundred million fish a year (289 million in 1917). 
By increasing this expenditure $25,000 a year 
and the establishment of more pike-perch field 
stations and small hatching plants the output of 
fish can be doubled. What better investment 
could the state make? 
Fish propagation, if handled in a practical 
manner, offers unlimited possibilities for develop¬ 
ment at very small cost, and it is only by taking 
care of the restocking of lakes and streams that 
the supply of fish for the future can be assured. 
This increase should at least be in proportion to 
the increased use of fish from the lakes of the 
state, which has been at least doubled in the 
past year. 
It should also be remembered that at the pres¬ 
ent time the Game and Fish department costs 
the general taxpayer of the state nothing. Every 
cent used in game and fish protection and propa¬ 
gation work is offset by collections of licenses, 
etc., which are turned into the state treasury— 
with a big balance to the credit of the depart¬ 
ment. The department made the state a profit 
over and above all its expenditures of $28,000.00 
in 1916 and $39,000.00 in 1917. 
The expenditures of the department are de¬ 
finitely fixed by the appropriations made by the 
legislature. With a profit of $67,000.00 in two 
years to its credit it may be seen that the de¬ 
mands for increase of the work can be fully 
met without costing the taxpayer a cent. 
No edible fish should be killed without restric¬ 
tion, especially in spawning time. It will be 
’•ealiz^d too late that Minnesota’s spearing laws 
have been lenient to the point of destruction. 
Closed For Four Years 
Pokegama Lake, Pine county, Minn., was form¬ 
erly a productive field for mussel fishing- or 
“clamming,” but the mussels have been depleted 
until artificial propagation is necessary to restore 
them. Minnesota is the only state which has a 
comprehensive mussel conservation law, and it 
is fortunate that it is possible to set aside de¬ 
pleted areas for propagation work, which has 
been done in this instance by the following 
order: 
To whom it may concern: 
Whereas, It has been shown that Pokegama Lake located 
in township 39, range 22 west, Pine county. Minnesota, 
formerly produced large number of mussels shells of ex¬ 
cellent duality and that said lake is now practically de¬ 
pleted of mussels, and 
Whereas, The United States Bureau of Fisheries did 
in 1913 plant several millions of mussel larvae in said lake, 
the success of which planting is apparent, and 
Whereas, It is the intention of the United States Bureau 
of Fisheries to continue to carry on extensive mussel 
propagation work in said lake for the purpose of restoring 
the mussels, and 
Whereas, The number of mussels now found in the lake 
are sufficient anly to serve as a nucleus for such propaga¬ 
tion work and the closing of said lake to mussels fishing 
for a period of years being necessary to prevent their 
extermination therein it is hereby ordered: 
That said Pokegama Lake located in township 39, range 
22 west. Pine county, Minnesota, be and the same is 
hereby closed to mussels fishing for a period of four 
years from publication hereof as provided for by Section 
5 of Chapter 471, General Laws of 1917. 
Hated at St. Paul, Minnesota, this 12th day of April 
1918. 
CARLOS AVERY, 
Game and Fish Commissioner. 
