QF^EMBERS OFthe'TE A TFAM S ILY M %H l^rR L ^URPn?p 1 Q R a BrPP .^ EHEAD MAY OFTEN BE SEEN. WING IN WING ALONGSIDE 
DUCKS ARE PROLIFIC TO A MARKED DEGREE B Y° ECTA bI fwiNP N R Pffnr wS C L P ° R POOD; THEIR ENEMIES ARE FEW 
IN WINTER. THE WILD-FOWL SHOOTING IN THIS COUNTRY WILL bTuSSS In^WHERE ^EWCrS™ ^ ^ 
While acting as informal overseer 
and adviser for the State, Mr. Mcll- 
henny discovered the weak link in the 
chain he had helped to forge for Louisi¬ 
ana and American conservation. A 
wild costal area of some 100,000 acres 
lay in the very heart of the game re¬ 
fuge region, and open to all the 
hunters and game hogs that 
might appear. If this territory 
were left open, and the game ex¬ 
posed to the ravages of indis¬ 
criminate shooting, the good to be 
accomplished by the establishment 
of the great refuges would be 
largely set at nought. He at once 
started to acquire title to this 
100,000 acre tract, which includes 
many ridges, much marsh land, a 
great deal of very fertile farm 
territory, and thousands of acres of 
small ponds and lakes. 
Recently he completed this task, and 
inserted the following advertisement 
in southern papers: 
“Dredging—to be cut, 17 miles of 
canal 40 feet wide, 8 feet deep. 
About 90 miles of canal 18 feet 
wide, 5 feet deep, all on marsh land, 
Address E. A. Mellhenny, Avery 
Island, La.” 
This work, a monumental task in 
itself, is only a part of the program he 
has laid out for the devel¬ 
opment of what promises 
to be the greatest conser¬ 
vation feat the world has 
ever known. The region, 
which centuries ago was 
the lower Mississippi Delta 
but which since has beeri 
deserted by the Father of 
Waters, is almost without 
water ways. These new 
canals, added to the natu¬ 
ral streams and ponds, will 
give the tract adequate 
drainage. All the new 
water territory, which the 
seven large lakes and many 
ponds, will be sown with 
banana water lily, coontail, 
wild celery and widgeon 
grass to attract and hold 
the millions of birds that throng the 
region in the winter months. Mr. 
Mellhenny has a force of men at work 
now improving the tract from the 
standpoint of wild life, and maintains 
a staff of seven wardens to keep out 
game pirates of every ilk. 
Illllll 
In the formation of great game pre¬ 
serves the fact must not be lost sight of 
that the man who is unable to be a mem- 
bei of some shooting club has rights as a 
sportsman which must not be violated. 
Forest & Stream. 
Ill 
The territory lies between White 
Lake and the rice fields on the north, 
and the gulf of Mexico on the south. 
It is surrounded, east and west, by the 
already established Rockefeller, Sage, 
Rainey-Mcllhenny and State refuges. 
By the creation of this last preserve, 
there is now a game paradise amount¬ 
ing to approximately 700 square miles 
wherein wild life is protected. The 
area has a frontage of seventy-five 
miles on the gulf coast. All kinds of 
fishing, fresh and salt water, may be 
Pape 559 
Ig® MUCH S0UGHT BY PLUME HUNTERS. NEEDS 
THE PROTECTION AFFORDED BY BIRD SANCTUARIES IN ORDER 
THAT ITS FUTURE MAY BE ASSURED. 
enjoyed in the new 100,000 acre tract, 
and practically every kind of wild duck 
and goose known to central North 
America is found there in winter. It is 
said there are more black bear in this 
part of Louisiana than in any other 
legion of the United States, and deer 
also are to be found. This is to 
say nothing of smaller game, 
such as coons, rabbits, squirrel, 
possum, mink, otter and musk¬ 
rat. 
A tour of the property con¬ 
vinces one that Mr. Mcllhenny’s 
project is vital to the cause of 
conservation. Traveling by horse¬ 
back, motor and motorboat, a 
number of sportsmen and con¬ 
servationists have been over this 
teiritory and seen enough to con¬ 
vince them that the project is as feas¬ 
ible as it is desirable, and the readers 
of this magazine will be interested to 
know that Mr. Mellhenny intends to 
see the project through to success and 
permanent establishment. 
Some of his friends, among them 
John Burnam, President of the Ameri¬ 
can Game Protective Association, and 
others known for their efforts in behalf 
of conservation, advised the formation 
of a fishing and hunting club, composed 
of men interested in conservation. Mem¬ 
bers of the club to be per¬ 
mitted to take game well 
within the legal limits laid 
down elsewhere. 
The first announced, and 
definitely planned detail of 
the organization, is the 
setting aside of a 100,000 
acre tract wherein the pub¬ 
lic may hunt, under Loui¬ 
siana legal restrictions. And 
the second is that a two 
mile wide strip across the 
territory will be set aside 
as a connecting link be¬ 
tween the great state game 
refuges which Mr. Mcllhen- 
ny did so much to help 
create. In this way the 
public interest in game will 
be conserved. 
