Oct. 25, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
519 
A canvasback whose principal diet has been 
clams, is always tough and rank, and so on from 
top to bottom of the list. In buying canvas for 
the table, those whose breasts are stained yellow, 
are celery-fed, others rarely are. 
Even the hands of the boys who picked up 
the decoys were stained a pale yellow, and the 
writer himself bore the marks of Texas wild 
celery for considerable time after going back to 
business. His hands appeared to have the jaun¬ 
dice, while the rest of him was well. 
“Isn’t there some way those ducks can be 
worked?” 
“How about it? Thought there never was 
a bunch of ducks that couldn’t be made to 
decoy.” 
“Let’s get busy. Before a cold storm 
comes it will be time to go.” 
That was a sample of the talk night after 
night at dinner. It was up to the writer to do 
something, and as to San Jacinto, he com¬ 
menced experimenting. First, weights and lines 
were rigged so the decoys could be kept in 
motion and made to dive. No use, those old 
white-backed veterans out in the middle, knew 
a decoy—would spot a flock of them with al¬ 
most human intelligence. Then every wooden 
decoy was taken up and brought in. Skins re¬ 
moved from ducks used for the table were 
tacked over some of them and a good looking 
flock of a dozen or more of these set out. The 
success was indifferent at first. After a day or 
so the ducks seemed to recognize them and kept 
away. Boards were anchored near the blind 
and ducks as fast as killed fastened to them 
and used to help out the skin covered decoys, 
the idea being to get as large a flock as possible 
of natural appearing birds. It didn’t help much and 
at night nearly every duck so used, was spoiled, 
badly spoiled, and had to be thrown away. As 
a last resort blinds were abandoned and two 
skin-covered decoys, females, set off a piece of 
natural cover. This way, a few birds were 
killed, not many, but more than in any of the 
other experiments. It seemed strange the ducks 
would work a little with two decoys out. Be 
wary of a dozen and keep clear of a hundred. 
Ducks know a lot more than they are given 
credit for. It is digressing, but just a single in¬ 
stance to illustrate—something that happened 
many miles from Texas, too. 
The writer was shooting late one fall along 
the Illinois River. He built a blind of dead 
grass, although perfect in construction, it 
showed enough so the mallard and sprig shied 
at it, and wouldn’t come in. All at once they 
took a notion to work and for an hour, shoot¬ 
ing was very good, then he had occasion to go 
out and chase a cripple. Coming back, he 
noticed two black birds perched on the blind. 
“The cheek of thenij” he thought, as they 
refused to fly when he came quite close. Pshaw! 
His eyes were bad; they were not birds, but 
a pair of black woolen gloves he had hung up 
to dry. However, they fooled the ducks who 
thought if that clump of grass was a safe place 
for black birds, they need not be afraid of it 
either. 
To make a test, the gloves were removed, 
then scarcely a bird came near, but when re¬ 
placed, the ducks decoyed readily. So by some 
way of reasoning peculiar to themselves, these 
Texas ducks figured which were decoys and 
which were not. They were veterans anyway, 
and at the best, it was hard doing much with 
them, for they had a lot of sense in their wise 
old heads. 
“Let us rest the lake for a week,” said Bud, 
who was present at one of the daily discussions, 
then continuing, “Bailey and his crowd have 
pulled out, Clint and I have some ranch work 
that should be done, and if your party must 
shoot, why there are lots of puddle ducks in 
the marsh.” 
This was agreed upon, and from Monday 
morning until Sunday night not a shot was fired 
within a mile of the lake. When the week was 
up, all started shooting at sunrise, and for an 
hour it was old times over again, then the 
ducks quit decoying and were as impossible as 
ever. 
“There is one more chance,” the writer told 
the shooters when they gathered around his 
box at noon, discouraged and ready to abandon 
the hunt. “Supposing we pool the shooting 
with Bud and Clint? They have a box and over 
two hundred decoys. We will stake their box 
out in the middle of the lake. Sixty yards from 
it, one of our boxes and sixty yards from that 
one another one. Then add the five hundred 
and fifty decoys we have to theirs, and string 
the lot from forty yards beyond their box to 
forty yards beyond our further one; this will 
give us a line of decoys two hundred yards long. 
No duck and probably no man has ever seen the 
like around here and I believe it is worth trying. 
Our boys can tend, pick up birds killed and help 
with the decoys and we will divide two-thirds 
and one-third.” 
“Good idea,” Bud answered after a little 
consideration, and “good idea” every one 
agreed. 
No time was lost carrying it out. The en¬ 
tire afternoon was spent getting things in shape, 
and as we paddled away after everything was 
done, the decoys showed like a flock of several 
thousand ducks, while the rims of the boxes 
were hardly noticeable. 
“Perfect,” said Clint and Bud. 
“Yes and we’ll get lots of shooting,” the 
politician agreed, and it did look favorable, for 
as we moved in the gathering darkness, toward 
the Amelia, we saw that every little flock of 
ducks crossing the lake in their evening flight 
would swing over the decoys, and not a bunch 
towered or turned away. 
Some other time we will see how the ex¬ 
periment panned out. 
The great importance which ostrich farm¬ 
ing has acquired in Southern Africa may be 
seen from an ostrich auction recently held at 
Middleburg, Cape Land. The lowest price paid 
for one pair of these birds was £180, and sev¬ 
eral pairs fetched £285. A few years ago 
ostriches were obtained by hunting only, and 
at that time a good bird could be bought for 
a menagerie or a zoological garden at a moder¬ 
ate price. But since their domestication and the 
development of ostrich farming as an industry, 
their price has risen enormously. From the 
Cape of Good Hope, 2,297 pounds of ostrich 
feathers were exported in i860 at a value of 
£18,261, but in 1873 the exportation had risen 
to 31.581 pounds at a value of £159,679, and 
recently a bunch of picked bloods were sold at 
Port Elizabeth for £67 15/ a pound; that is 
about 15/ a feather. 
Who? 
My shipmates often ask me why I never cast a line 
When we are anchored ten miles off the shore; 
They say that when you strike a cod, the feeling’s very 
line; 
A big one that weighs thirty pounds or more. 
But then 1 always tell them that it surely wouldn’t do. 
The reasons that i give are pretty sound; 
For instance, who’s a-goin’ to do the chinning to the 
crew? 
And who’s a-goin’ to smoke and sit around? 
Now, who’s a-goin’ to go around the deck and watch the 
sport; 
A-keepin’ tab on every string and bag? 
Yes, who’s a-goin’ to boss the job till we get back to 
port? 
And who’s the man that’s goin’ to chew the rag? 
Suppose that there’s a tangle, boys; now, who’s a-goin’ 
to tell 
The scientific way to get it right? 
And who’s a-goin’ to watch the ships a-rollin’ on the 
swell, 
From eight bells in the morning until night? 
This isn’t half the story, mates, for when you come to 
think 
The bar needs some attention, too, as well, 
So if all hands were fishing, boys, why, who’s a-goin’ to 
drink? 
And blow the froth to leeward for a spell? 
There’s someone got to slouch around with bunches of 
advice; 
To tell the boys the kind of bait to get, 
And someone’s got to watch ’em play at cards, or chuck 
the dice. 
Yes, someone must be on the job, you bet! 
And when we lie at anchor who’s a-goin’ to tease the 
mate? 
Who’s a-goin’ to entertain the engineer? 
There’s someone got to do it, and X may as well just 
state 
That someone’s got to help the skipper steer. 
The things that I have mentioned are important, and, 1 
say, 
The thought of any change makes me feel blue. 
So with your kind consent, why, I suppose X'd better 
stay 
To lounge around, a-yarning with the crew. 
—The Fishing Gazette. 
Waste from Desks Goes into Brushes 
Waste wood in the manufacture of school 
desks is now being used for the backs of cheap 
brushes, according to the statement of the forest 
service. 
A large manufacturer of school desks in 
Michigan had a considerable amount of waste 
material in sizes which were too short to enter 
into the manufacture of the smallest desks, and 
could not be utilized further with his machinery 
or in his line of work. This material was all 
hard maple, in pieces an inch thick, a foot or so 
long, and about three inches wide; for a long 
time it had been consigned to the waste pile and 
sold as firewood. This waste amounted to from 
one thousand to fifteen hundred board feet each 
day. A nearby manufacturer was using practic¬ 
ally this quantity of maple, which he was sawing 
up into small pieces for making the backs of 
cheap brushes. 
Members of the forest service, investigating 
methods of eliminating factory waste, conceived 
the idea that the blocks used by the brush fac¬ 
tory could be readily secured from the waste of 
the school desk manufacturer, and on this basis 
got the two together. Arrangements were made 
so that the brush manufacturer now places orders 
with the other firm for its raw material, and 
what was formerly waste is now a source of 
profit. 
