FOREST AND STREAM 
111 
could gather them all around him when he gave a 
call that they seemed to understand. Superin¬ 
tendent Crampton has worked out a great many 
original ideas at the farm. The lanes which are 
lined by the small coops have been sown with 
grain, and in the shelter of the waving grain the 
little pheasants defy the efforts of the prey-seek¬ 
ing hawks to locate them. Superintendent 
Crampton was highly complimented by the sports¬ 
men on the thorough manner in which the farm 
is conducted. At this point the party had their 
picture taken by the Bridgeport Herald reporter. 
At a cost of $2,750 a new barn has been con¬ 
structed and it is perfect in every detail. Five 
hundred nests are placed on each side of the 
building from four to five rows high and here 
the pheasants and quail are hatched. Each day 
the hens are taken from their nests, which are 
built with a wire door in front, and placed in 
other crates for a period of half an hour, during 
which time they are fed and have a chance to 
stretch while the nests are being cleaned. Cleanli¬ 
ness is an essential thing in the conduct of the 
farm and one is certainly impressed with this 
feature wherever he goes. The shifting of the 
hens is a huge job and requires 'two men all the 
morning long to do the work. Upstairs in the 
barn is the carpenter shop where the model coops 
are built. After being completed they are painted 
green, which preserves the wood and aids in sani¬ 
tation. 
Most of the birds on the farm are pheasants, 
but the ones that attracted the eyes of the sports¬ 
men most were the bob whites, which are lo¬ 
cated in pens across the road from the house. 
The pens cover over an acre of ground and have 
been given the most care in their construction, 
as the success of raising quail in captivity as yet 
has not been as successful as the raising of 
pheasants. 
There are about ioo old quail on the farm 
and Keeper Hopkins hopes to raise a lot of young 
ones. The first brood was hatched the day be¬ 
fore the party came. They were lively and 
seemed to be contented with their bantam 
mother. 
The feeding of the birds is one of the most 
important matters. Mr. Hopkins says it is easy 
enough to hatch them, but the nursing and proper 
feeding is the principal thing. The young birds 
are not fed for forty-eight hours after hatching 
and then they are given feed made from milk 
and eggs, resembling a custard. The proportions 
are a pint of milk to half a dozen eggs, let come 
to a boil and strain through sieve and feed four 
or five times a day for three weeks, then they 
are given Spratts patent pheasant food, scratch 
food, rice and crissel, which takes the place of 
insects. 
Superintendent Crampton asked the party if 
they would like some of the pheasants’ eggs and 
most everyone took some to try and see what 
luck they will have raising them. If the sports¬ 
men and farmers can raise them it will not be 
long before they will be very plentiful. After 
the inspection of the farm Mr. Crampton invited 
some of the party to his summer home on the 
shore, and Mrs. Crampton and her two daugh¬ 
ters entertained the party royally. Mr. Crampton 
said all the improvements made at the farm have 
been made possible by the hunters’ license fees, 
and the maintainance of the farm has not up to' 
date cost the state a penny. The sportsmen, after 
a thorough inspection of the game farm, were 
convinced that Superintendent Crampton was do¬ 
ing everything possible for their interest. 
After partaking of the bountiful lunch Mrs. 
Crampton had prepared, the talk then turned to 
other matters of the game commission. One 
thing Mr. Crampton said was, that he was going 
to enforce the laws and he wanted the help of 
every sportsman in sympathy with him to give all 
the information possible to him and his wardens. 
He has had a lot of trouble with the lobster men 
and he notified all of them that if he caught one 
of them with any more short lobsters they would 
be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. He 
cited one instance that happened last fall, where 
two hunters that called themselves sportsmen 
knew where there were two flocks of Hungarian 
partridge. The first day they killed all but two 
of the eighteen in the flock and the next time 
killed the remaining two, and the excuse they 
offered was that if they didn’t some one else 
would. Mr. Crampton said those are the kind 
of game hogs you have got to curb if you expect 
to have good shooting in Connecticut. He also 
said that he knew hunters that would kill the 
last partridge in the woods, they knowing full 
well it -being the only one left in a certain local¬ 
ity instead of leaving it for seed. 
I asked Mr. Crampton how many lobsters he 
planted this year, and he said eight million, the 
largest plant ever made in the state. New York 
state planted three million and the press made 
a great time over it. In a few days there will 
be 30,000 black bass to stock the lakes and rivers 
with, and this fall there will be 440,000 fingerling 
trout to stock the streams with. 
Mr. Crampton said a good many complained 
that certain localities had more trout than others. 
That is the fault of the fishermen, as all the 
trout are given out by the number blanks sent 
into the commissioners. The trouble is, the ma¬ 
jority of the fishermen after they get the blanks, 
do not fill them out, as it requires a little time 
and trouble to put the trout out and costs fifty 
cents a can, which pays for the transportation, 
etc. Then they complain because the fishing is 
not better. Mr. Crampton hopes more of the 
sportsmen will inspect the game farm, as he 
wants them to see what is being done. 
PENNSYLVANIA FISHING. 
Five thousand tags are to be shipped this month 
to Luzerne county where the nine thousand sent 
for the hunters have already been exhausted by 
the Nimrods. They are charged $1 each for 
these license tokens and the vigorous policy pur¬ 
sued by the state police in arresting hunters with¬ 
out their licenses means that the record of 10,994 
sold for last season will be surpassed -this year. 
The tags this season are white, while last year 
they were yellow. The custom of permitting jus¬ 
tices of the peace to issue them has been abolished 
and this year County Treasurer George Buss 
will be the only man in the county from whom 
they can be procured. 
One of the features of the Pennsylvania State 
convention of the Elks at Hazleton in August 
will be a big shoot at 10 o’clock in the morning 
of Friday, August 28, at the grounds of the Hazle¬ 
ton Gun Club at Conyngham Pass. Elks who are 
target experts will be in attendance from all parts 
of Pennsylvania and a number of fine trophies 
have been offered. 
Game Keeper Frank Hopkins, Commissioner Mollon, Supt. Crampton. 
