
Tree ducks on Dr. H. C. Vincent’s game farm at Joplin, Missouri. 
Getting 
Started. 
How to Select 
the Ground, 
Fence It in 
and Build 
Cages 
Practical Game Breeding 
PORTSMEN, hunters, shooters 
S and trappers all are beginning to 
realize that the time has come 
when game of all kinds must not only 
be conserved but must be bred. There 
are certain types of conservationists 
who are constantly fighting the idea of 
breeding game as is done in Europe, 
but conservation alone would only 
make game plentiful enough for the 
photographer, who has an abundance 
of patience, plenty of time, and likes 
to photograph the rare and beautiful 
things that only one person in a million 
ever actually sees. 
Consider: Ontario is, perhaps, as 
well policed, and the game laws are as 
well obeyed as anywhere on this conti- 
nent with the possible exception of 
British Columbia. My game keeper 
told me recently that some of my 
Reeves pheasants got out and went off 
to a nearby woods. He followed them 
and found a man who carried a gun,in 
the woods which belonged to a farmer. 
On my game keeper’s asking this man 
what he was shooting, he was told: 
“Anything and everything alive.” Now 
this occurred in summer when nothing 
was to be shot except crows and other 
vermin. Previously, during the winter, 
two men started out on a shooting con- 
test—it could not be called hunting. 
Both left the Lake shore, one to the 
east, the other to the west of Toronto. 
They were to meet to the north of To- 
ronto, on the center road known as 
Yonge Street, at Aurora. Whoever 
killed the most—everything counted in 
this contest—was the winner: the loser 
652 
By GEORGE HEBDEN CORSAN 
paid for the supper eaten that night. 
The result of such “sportsmanship” 
is that no one in Toronto ever sees any 
wild life except robins and English 
sparrows. 
Were farmers “allowed” to breed 
game there would be a tremendous 
change, such a change that any and all 
farmers, if they wished to do so, could 
supply hunters from the cities who 
revel in the sport of hunting game 
birds, and even animals. At the same 
time, the grasshopper plague would 
disappear; the Japanese beetle would 
not become a menace, for all gallina- 
ceous game birds must be fed on in- 
sects, especially during early life. 
Weed seeds and insects must form their 
principal diet because heavy grains, 
such as wheat, barley, corn, etc., will 
kill them. Not only would game breed- 
ing, with a little experience, prove a 
profitable side-line for the farmer, but 
it would also provide remunerative 
work for some of the unemployed; give 
additional interest to the life of the 
boys and girls who want something 
different from the usual routine of 
farm work; provide hunting, shooting, 
trapping, and nature study; keep un- 
der control the terrible insect plagues 
that threaten to make fruit and vege- 
table farming an extinct profession. 
AME farming, naturally, is a real 
art and requires more work from 
the neck up than most businesses or 
professions. However, Americans like 
to tackle hard problems, so I will tell 
you at the very beginning of this series 
that game breeding is a most difficult 
task. It can be carried on success- 
fully, as I have known a number of 
breeders who are running game farms 
and making a fine business. 
| HAVE known game breeders to 
breed such rare and magnificent 
game as the Impeyan pheasant. When 
game breeders can raise such birds as 
Mackensen and other breeders have 
bred, they can raise any upland game 
birds of the gallinaceous order in the 
world. Personally, I am more inter- 
ested in the waterfowl and have been 
experimenting with various wild geese 
for a number of years at a hobby. In 
these years I have raised such exceed- 
ingly difficult waterfowl as the lesser 
snow goose and the blue goose, and, as 
I write this article, I see some young 
of the bernicle geese on their way to 
the creek with their parents. How- 
ever, my work is not commercial and I 
have no birds to sell. You may write 
me for any information regarding 
game breeding as I have had many 
years’ experience and have also visited 
nearly all of the-game farms and game 
refuges in this country; but please do 
not ask for birds, or bird eggs. 
By starting your game farm right 
-you can make yourself happy by suc- 
ceeding from the start. There will, of 
course, and most naturally, be bad sea- 
sons which we cannot control, though 
we can be prepared to meet bad sea- 
sons. The land, of course,.is your first 
consideration. It should not be expen- 
sive land. There -is much so-called 
ee 
