Co-op Units Release 13,564 Pheasants in Nebraska A PITTMAN-ROBERTSON PROJECT

Organizations sponsoring Cooperative Pheasant Rearing Units released 13,564 ten-week old pheasants during the 1940 production season. These same organizations were responsible for creating 30 new refuge areas of 45,000 acres, and for the planting of 36,620 trees and shrubs to supplement existing feed and cover supplies.

During 1940, 16,992 pheasant poults were delivered to the 51 Cooperative Pheasant Rearing Units. Of this number, 13,564 ten-week old pheasants were released. This is an average of 191.04 birds per unit or 79.83% of all birds started.

The most successful unit in view of the number of birds raised was located in the southcentral part of the state which liberated 217 birds of 220 started; a success of 98.63%. The poorest unit was located in the central part of the state and released 100 of 240 started; a success of 41.66%.

These figures may well be compared with the figures secured in 1939 when 5,704 pheasants were started and 3,896 birds were liberated, an average of 149.84 pheasants per unit, or 68.3%. The most successful unit and the least successful unit in 1939 were in the northeastern part of the state liberating respectively 93.51% and 6.81% of those started.

To determine the total increase, we may cite these figures: In 1940, 11,188 more pheasant poults were started than in 1939, and 9,668 more pheasants were liberated. Each unit averaged 41.2 pheasants more per brood. All units increased their efficiency by 11.53%. The best unit in 1940 was 5.12% more successful than the best unit in 1939 and the poorest unit was 34.85% more successful than the poorest unit in 1939.

Cost of production of the several pheasants liberated was as strikingly lower for 1940 as was the great increase in. the number of birds liberated. During the 1940 season, a total of $9,674.29 was spent on the Cooperative Pheasant Rearing Project. Taking only 20% of the brooder unit cost and posting cost as a fair charge against this year's project plus 20% of the brooder unit costs and posting costs of the 1939 project, a total of $6,644.20 may be charged against the project operation. For the 13,564 birds liberated, this makes a total cost per bird of 48.984 cents, as compared with a like charge for the 1939 units of $3,777.60, a cost of 96.969 cents each for the 3,896 birds produced.

Cost per bird liberated and chargeable to the Pittman-Robertson funds in 1940 was 36.738 cents per bird as compared with 72.726 cents per bird in 1939. Cost per bird chargeable to the State Game and Fish funds was 12.246 cents per bird in 1940 as compared with 24.242 cents per bird in 1939. These charges on cost of production, of course, do not include the expenses borne by the local sponsoring organizations for feed, litter, electricity or labor; nor do they include the costs of the day-old pheasant poults.

Many types of organizations were responsible for the success of the fifty-one (51) projects in operation in 1940. Some twenty (20) wildlife organizations were formed for the sole purpose of sponsoring pheasant rearing units. Six (6) Izaak Walton League Chapters and five (5) Wildlife Federation organizations each accounted for as many units. Four (4) gun clubs and four (4) American Legion groups each completed four (4) projects, while three (3) Lions Clubs and three (3) Commercial Clubs likewise handled three (3) projects. One (1) each of volunteer firemen, Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and Community Club sponsored a unit, while the Boy Scouts in two locations were responsible for the successful completion of two units.

The organizations taking an active part in restoration activities are realizing that an intensive stocking program is without value unless the birds are stocked in areas that are desirable as game bird habitats. This has made it possible for us to have a conservation program based on upland game requirements rather than on the immediate requirements of the sportsmen.

To each group we have attempted to explain the essence of game management, basing a successful game management program on three important steps: First, has been the improvement of the habitat; second, a stocking program; and third, a judicial harvest of the crop.

Where the initial response to the pheasant-rearing units has been to produce and liberate as many birds as possible, we are now finding an attitude among the several organizations that it is useless to produce and liberate wild game unless the upland game has a home in which to live and reproduce its kind. Where landowners are leaving winter food patches and particularly nesting cover, they find a great increase in the numbers of wildlife on their lands. Much of this increase has been due directly to the acts of conservation instilled by the several groups that have taken so active a part in the pheasant-rearing project.

Reports of banded pheasants liberated on the refuge areas have tended to disprove a popular notion that pheasants liberated within the state migrated in a northwesterly direction. It has been possible to locate the direction and distance of migration of each pheasant from the exact point in a section, from point of release with the point reported where the pheasant was shot. This indicates that the pheasants are as apt to go in any one direction as in any other. If any analysis of migration can be drawn, it is that birds liberated on any given refuge migrated from that refuge during the summer and fall toward stream-flood plains. There is some migration across drainage systems. The bulk of the migration, however, is either up or down the particular drainage system on which the refuge is located.

Reported losses due to hunting is only about 2%, so it is not likely that more than 5% of the liberated birds are killed, on the basis that one-half of the banded birds are reported that are shot. We have notified each individual reporting a band as to where the bird was raised, by whom, where liberated, and the date of liberation. Almost without exception, those reporting banded birds are amazed at the size and apparent vitality of the banded birds shot.

For the 1941 season, twelve (12) additional units will be added to the fifty-one (51) now in operation. Any groups interested in securing a rearing unit for their community should get in touch with the State Game Department at once for full details and particulars.

Editor's Note: Do not confuse this project with our State Game Farm near Madison, Nebraska.

TWELVE things to remember: 1. The value of time. 2. The success of perseverance. 3. The pleasure of working. 4. The dignity of simplicity. 5. The worth of character. 6. The power of kindness. 7. The influence of example. 8. The obligation of duty. 9. The wisdom of economy. 10. The virtue of patience. 11. The improvement of talent. 12. The joy of originating. —Marshall Field.

What Nebraska Is Doing To Restore Quail

THE Quail Restoration Project began operation in Nebraska on May 1, 1940. Before any field work started, definite plans of project management were set up, including the objectives and the procedure to be followed in organizing the work. More detailed management plans were also formulated to apply to individual refuge projects. These plans include: the range requirements of quail; the relationship of feed, cover and open grassland; natural feed types; possibilities of feed patch plantings, annual and perennial; types of cover necessary and possibilities of planting cover and feeds; methods of taking quail census on projects and the proper procedure in stocking birds.

A listing of native woody plants affording both good feed and cover possibilities in Southeastern Nebraska was compiled for use in organizing planting plans.

So that the best cooperation could be secured in each locality throughout the four southeastern counties of the state, local sportsmen were contacted in each community. Through these men, prospective farmers and landowners who were interested in conservation work were interviewed by a field representative for the project. In most cases, the farmers were interested in both soil and wildlife conservation and in some cases the interest was primarily in soil conservation through erosion control by planting of ditches and gullies which are also directly beneficial to wildlife. The first month was occupied almost entirely by initial contact work; from then on, the interest in the program increased and many farmers were requesting participation.

The work of selecting the cooperators and land areas involved the surveyance of several areas in each locality, so that the most suitable might be used. Several factors were given prime importance in these selections. First was the attitude and sincerity of the cooperator, the desirability of the land available, the location within the county and community, and the possibility of establishing further interest in surrounding landowners.

In all refuge projects, an attempt was made to include areas which are now capable of supporting quail and which also offer areas where restorative improvements can be made in wildlife habitat. On such areas, a time advantage can be secured in that quail can be stocked on parts of them at an early date, allowing improved areas time to develop to a point where they may support any reproductive spread from the stocked birds.

On such areas, no birds will be wasted by introduction into lands which are entirely dependent on restorative plantings which might not reach a suitable stage of growth in one season. Such areas selected for improvement will provide extensions of present covey ranges rather than the creation of new and isolated ranges, thus

Farm Pond Management

DURING the past few years a great many ponds have been established in our state. Some of these have been constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and many other ponds by the farmers, themselves.

All of these ponds are of value to prevent excessive run-off, to prevent gully erosion, to store water for livestock, to help maintain the soil water supply of the region, and also to provide recreational value to the farmer.

In most cases, the ponds have been built, filled with water, and left to maintain themselves. Seif - maintenance of ponds is improbable, unless provision is made to control the drainage from filling the pond with silt, to prevent wave action from cutting out the dam, and to keep cattle from trampling out the vegetation along the shoreline.

Many farm ponds have been stocked with fish with the expectation that the fish would live and multiply to such an extent that the pond-owner and his friends might enjoy good fishing. Much to their disappointment the fish did not grow or multiply, and in many cases have died out. Loss of fish or poor growth has been due to lack of natural foods, muddy water, poorly aerated water, and lack of aquatic vegetation among which the fish may lay their eggs or spawn.

By giving some thought to these problems, it is found that they are all closely related and can be solved by one management program.

A farm pond should not be left entirely open to livestock. It is possible to fence any pond in such a manner as to provide water for livestock and yet keep them from trampling the whole shoreline. All of the livestock can water at one place just as easily as at a number of places.

The waterway draining into a pond may be seeded. If seeded to grass, it will filter out and hold silt carried from fields. If the waterway is in pasture, it can be fenced with little or no loss of land.

After fencing, the pond and dam should be vegetated. If a dam or shoreline is left barren, the wave action of the water will cut into the bank, causing it to crumble and fill the pond. It may also cause breaks in the dam, destroying the pond immediately.

Aquatic plants should be used at the water's edge. Many aquatic plants are native and are easily planted by using root stocks.

The strip above the water plants may be seeded to grass. Some shrubs and trees may then be planted to form a belt above the grass planting. A suggested shrub and tree planting for this strip would include willows, cottonwoods, elms, locust, dogwood, wild cherry, wild plum, buckbrush, or coral berry, currants, blackberry, mulberry and Russian olive. The waterways or gullies draining to the pond may also be planted to the same trees and shrubs.

In the pond, there may be planted a number of mosses, lilies and pond weeds which are commonly found in Nebraska. These are used to help purify and aerate the water supply for fish and livestock. Such plants growing in the water are good feed for fish and harbor many small forms of plant and animal life which may be utilized by the fish. When these plants are present in the pond it is not necessary to feed the fish.

Many farm ponds in Nebraska, which five years ago were ten to twenty feet deep, are now only shallow mud holes. These ponds are no longer useful and do not provide good water for livestock. After two or three years, they have partially

Winterkill of Fishes in Nebraska

THE phenomenon of winterkill is well known to fishermen and sportsmen of Nebraska. In any region of naturally shallow waters and of severe winters it is bound to happen, often with devastating effects. Recent examples of this type of fish death have been seen in Oak Creek Park Lake near Lincoln, where in the spring of 1938 most of the carp within the lake were found dead when the ice disappeared; and in a small lake east of Crete, where in 1936 the entire fish population was killed. Perhaps the best example is given by Memphis Lake in Saunders County, where late in the spring of 1940 great quantities of dead fishes were found drifting on the surface of the water and bunched along the shore. It seemed as though every fish in the lake had perished, but a cursory examination in June showed that although the gizzard shad had been almost exterminated, a plentiful supply of bullheads remained. Still other examples of this costly type of fish loss have been reported, especially from shallow sand hill lakes and numerous small artificial lakes.

In order to understand why fishes succumb to winterkill, one should accept the fundamental assertion that fishes must be able to take in oxygen through their gills in order to live. This oxygen normally is dissolved in lake water in sufficient quantity, but if it drops below a certain minimum amount, the fishes cannot respire properly and may die.

During the summers oxygen is present in abundance. The lake plants make use of long hours of sunshine and warmer waters to grow rapidly, and the great amounts of oxygen liberated as a by-product of their food-making processes are dissolved within the water. Some oxygen may also diffuse in through the surface film. Occasional winds or temperature changes produce currents which thoroughly distribute this oxygen to most parts of a shallow lake and aquatic animals may use it freely. But during the winters the lake cools and freezes over, preventing wind and temperature changes from circulating the water. Most of the plants are deprived of their warm waters and necessary amounts of sunshine, and die, resulting in decreased oxygen production. Oxygen consumption by the rotting of dead and decaying vegetation, oxidation of organic trash and muck on the bottom, and the breathing of animals actively continues, and unless the oxygen-forming processes begin again, it is only a matter of time until all but a trace of the vital gas is consumed and replaced with unusable carbon dioxide. Then the fishes begin to suffocate.

Some fishes are quite sensitive to this change in the water's dissolved gases and are unable to live. Bluegills and other sunfishes, crappies, gizzard shad and certain minnows are of this sort, and among them, those which are bearing heavy parasitic infections are the first to die. Their death may occur at any time from December to April whenever the oxygen content of the water reaches a certain low point, and their bodies float up to become imbedded in the lower surface of the ice. When the ice melts in the spring the semi-preserved carcasses drift to shore, and because it is then that most fishermen usually notice them, it is wrongly assumed that they expire at about that time. In only one instance, mentioned in the next paragraph, might that be true.

Other fishes such as the carp and bullhead are able to curtail their movements and make use of compensating chemical substances within their bloodstreams in order to survive most periods of oxygen deficiency. However, after a long winter these fishes are so completely adjusted to such ordinarily unfavorable conditions that they are unable to endure the quick change back to normalcy caused by a sudden break-up of the ice and immediate circulation or oxygenation of the water. It is believed that mass deaths of certain species of fishes, mainly carp, may occur at this time.

The attempted remedies and preventions of winterkill are numerous and varied, but no one is successful. The cutting of holes in the ice to add oxygen to the water does not seem to benefit the fishes. According to recent discoveries it may harm them, for the fishes are in some way attracted to the openings, crowd densely around them, and rapidly exhaust the small bit of oxygen remaining in those small areas. They do not move away before death overtakes them. Artificial circulation of the water, either by stirring it with outboard motors, or by pumping it out of one hole and spraying it into another, is too costly and does not get results. In some regions, the deepening of lakes may be practical, depending upon the type of lake basins, water supply, and the availability of machinery.

One promising method of winterkill prevention is now being tested and elaborated upon by the Institute of Fisheries Research at the University of Michigan. It has been found that if enough light can get through the ice cover into the lake, many of the plants will not die during the winter, but will remain green and continue to liberate oxygen as they manufacture their food in spite of the cool waters surrounding them. Thus, although the processes of decay and oxygen consumption are still going on, they are exceeded by the processes of oxygen production, and enough oxygen exists for use by fishes. Light easily passes through considerable thicknesses of ice, but a layer of snow only three to six inches deep over the ice shuts out enough light to bring about an appreciable change in the oxygen content of the water in a short time. Deeper snow covers, such as those which persisted on most Nebraska lakes for more than two months of the 1939-40 winter, seem able to cause winterkill "epidemics" of severe intensity. With the amount of research which is now being done on this problem, and the amount of basic information being obtained, it is within reason to hope that lightweight, inexpensive equipment can be devised to remove snow covers from wide areas of many lakes. This should allow sufficient light penetration to guarantee some oxygen production by plants, and to prevent a great and costly loss of fishes by winterkill.

Editor's Note: For the last two years Mr. Johnson has been making a survey of Nebraska's fishes, under a permit issued by the Nebraska Game Commission.

EDITORIAL

J. M. Merritt, superintendent of Nebraska's fisheries, has followed his own "Dim Trails" to their unknown ending. On October 22d in Rochester, Minnesota, Mel passed into the Great Beyond, and in his passing has left the memory of a man whose sole purpose in life was to create and build a feeling of contentment and recreation among Nebraska's fishermen.

J. M. Merritt, 55 years of age, had a long and varied career. After coming to Nebraska, he was employed at the Gretna State Fish Hatchery for nine years from 1913 to 1922. From 1922 to 1923 he was engaged in the building and construction business. In 1923 he engaged in extensive farming operations north of Valentine, Nebraska, and in South Dakota until 1927. During the three-year period of 1927-1929, he was engaged as superintendent of the Valentine Hatchery, after which he again engaged in farming until 1931. In 1931 Mr. Merritt became superintendent of the Gretna Fisheries and in turn became departmental engineer, and superintendent of fisheries, which position he held until his death.

During his 22 years of service with the state, Mel played an important role in progressive fish culture and in a statewide fish-stocking program. His loss is mourned by all who knew him and knew his ideals.

To Merritt, dim trails were not always calm and serene; sometimes they were caught in the steel grasp of winter, or the intense heat of summer, but to him all hardships possessed a beauty that only he, who traveled on them, knew.

Take A Boy Along

Possibly last summer you had planned a fishfng trip for your son, a real red blooded American boy, now at yie age when sport and adventure mean almost as much as life itself, who would have welcomed the opportunity for learning about the great out-of-doors and enjoying the companionship of his father; but then your plans miscarried. On the appointed day some unimportant incident caused a postponement of the fishing trip and your son was keenly disappointed. Now. ,.come.s another opportunity!

THE telephone rang: it was Jim— and Jim's all right, except— "Hey, Coop," he exclaimed, "how about going fishing tomorrow?"

"Can't."

"Why not?"

That was nettling; the answer was brusque: "Largely because I don't feel like it." Naturally I couldn't add that I didn't feel like going with him. But there must have been an inflection which he caught, for he announced:

"Listen, have I got the gypsy curse on me, or what is it? You're the last of six guys I've asked and all of them backed out."

So I said I had an ulcerated tooth and a headache and a pain in my side, which settled the matter and he hung up. A week later, I loped into a restaurant at four o'clock in the morning, for a quick breakfast and a getaway for Istokpoga Lake—and there was Jim.

"Going fishing?" he asked gleefully. There wasn't anything to do but admit it. Then he asked: "Going alone?"

No chance to lie out of it!

"Yes," I said, "I just thought I'd run out for a little while—"

Jim grinned. "I'm all set for a fishing trip too!"

"Swell," came weakly, knowing that the next thrust would be the suggestion that we go together. But just about that time, Jim got up from his table and sidled over, and there was an air about him that I'd never seen before, one of satisfaction, of good sportsmanship, of give and take. That seemed strange, for Jim was always a fellow to want the front end of the boat, the one bait that they're striking on, the first cast into a likely hole.

"Yep," he said, staring at the door, "I'm going out for a real day—just as soon as my guests show up."

"Guests?" That had made me gasp. Jim grinned.

"I've kind of got this fishing business licked," he said. "Although about all I'll do today is row the boat. Remember that day I called you up? Well, everybody was busy or sick or something and I didn't know what to do. Finally I got so desperate, I'd have taken a Missouri mule, and about that time, my neighbor's kid came over to collect for the paper and I asked him how long it had been since he'd really been fishing. You know what? That kid had never had a casting rod in his hand—never fished with anything but a cane pole and string and worms. I got an idea.

" 'How would you like to go with me?' I asked him. 'Down to Okeechobee Lake?' Well, that boy about fell over, and when I realized what I'd done I almost fainted myself. But just the same we went. All the way down, I cussed myself. I'd spend the whole day teaching that youngster to cast. But that's where I got fooled. After I'd coached him a few minutes, he says, all of a sudden:

" 'Oh, I know! You mean I should handle this rod just like I was flipping mud-balls off the end of a stick!' Danged if he didn't start right in casting! And Coop, when you come to think of it, that's just what casting is—the same kind of a flip we used to give mud-balls when we splattered them on the side of a school house. The first thing I knew, I was so interested in watching him that I almost forgot I had a rod of my own. And then the little sonofagun tied into a seven pound bass! I never got so excited in all my life. There's a kid that's got the makings of a real fisherman! I'm taking him along today, and his cousin with him." He started back to his table. "Sorry you haven't got some kid to go along with you, Coop." All that day I thought about Jim and envied him. I wondered where they had gone, and whether the second kid would turn out as much of a natural as the first. After awhile I found myself hoping one of them would really tie into a big one, way up around nine or ten pounds. That would be a kick, to see a youngster battling a prize fish. And the next thing I knew, time had rolled far back, farther, in fact, than I would care to confess.

I myself was a kid again, bumping along in an old horse-drawn moving van, over the Hannibal bridge out of Kansas City. It was Sunday, and my Uncle Will, and Big Friday, who ran the shipping room where Uncle Will worked, and a couple of other fellows were bound for Horseshoe Lake. My Uncle Will had kidded them into taking me along—and he'd told me privately that if I stacked up with his friends and showed myself to be a real fellow, I could go along again some time.

What a day that was—shagging wood for the fire, carrying water for the coffee pot and the dishwashing! And Big Friday even let me look at his $20 reel and rod that the fellows had given him for Christmas. But most of all were the pictures I took—without a camera. Pictures that would last far longer than any product of lens or developing room—the blue of sky that best can be seen lying on one's back in the shade of a walnut tree, the lazy circles of a great hawk, high against the clouds, the spatter of a flock of blackbirds, settling into a dead hickory. Everything about that day remained in unforgettable focus, the whitish cluster of elderberry blooms at the jutting point of a little bay, the soft droop of the willows, the splash of wild roses on a hillside.

And there was the fish I caught, a tremendous, walloping thing that seized my bait and yanked it a mile deep in the water and then fought me up the bank and back again before I could yank him over my head, stagger about wildly, and then fall flat on my face as I attempted to corral him in my arms. I guessed then that he was the biggest fish that any boy ever caught, and Big Friday agreed with me, although one of the other fellows said he believed he'd read somewhere of a boy about my own age down in Rich Hill, Missouri, who'd caught one that might be just a mite bigger. I offered to let them cook it, but they all said it was too fine a fish to be cooked in camp, and that they'd save it and take it home for Big Friday's family to eat. Many years later, I learned that it was a two pound carp, as full of bones as a cop is full of authority, and that they'd quietly dumped it

The Man with the Hoe

LONG ago, some military strategist expressed himself to the effect that "the best defense is an attack." Study of state wildlife conservation policies reveals that most of them are merely defensive, a resistance built up against the effects of harmful factors, rather than direct attacks on the harmful factors themselves. Static conservation policies have failed to meet the test. Dynamic conservation alone offers a way out.

Any study of fish and game conservation, any consideration of its principles and its history, brings out the fact that positive attack on the problem is the only method left to governmental authority. Continuation of a negative policy must mean only a continuation of the long series of failures and discouragements that have followed the conservationist from the time Moses (Deuteronomy 22:6) laid down the law that bird hunters should not disturb the "dam sitting upon the young ones, or upon the eggs." By a "negative policy" is meant a policy of "protection" with protection limited to restriction of hunting or fishing to certain seasons, to bag limits, or to size limits, and the establishment of "refuges." The negative policy has its origin in the attempts of the rulers of men to preserve for themselves an ample supply of game, by limiting hunting to their own group. The paramount fallacy in dependence on restrictive measures alone is the fact that such measures attack only single phases of the problem, and cannot be carried far enough to satisfy the needs of the fish and game population without sacrificing the actual needs of man himself.

Man's requirements are met by agriculture and industry. Both agriculture and industry adapt and utilize natural materials and natural processes to their own advantage. Such adaptation means a decrease in the amount of food, cover and water provided by nature for fish and game. Restrictive measures limit to some extent the amounts of food, cover and water that may be diverted from use by wildlife to use by man, and limit to some extent the percentage of each generation of wildlife that may be "taken" by man. The first limitation aids to some extent the conservation of the actual needs of the wildlife; the second, to some extent, provides for the leaving of seed stock on the range and in the stream for the perpetuation of the various species. If one man or group of men takes from another, the law usually provides some means of compensation, but man expects to continue to take from wildlife its natural requirements without compensation of any kind. The progress of mankind requires continued expansion of agriculture and industry, but the actual survival of wildlife requires that man provide for restoration of at least the bare needs of which wildlife has been deprived in this expansion.

The positive method of attack on the problem of the conservation of fish and game involves, therefore, an attempt at restoration of some of the cover, food and water that man has destroyed, and a more or less rigid policy of resistance to any further unnecessary encroachment of man's activities on wildlife requirements in the few natural wildlife areas that now are left.

Man has made a feeble attempt to compensate for the damage done to wildlife by establishing "hatcheries" where a small amount of game and fish are hopefully raised at great expense to become the progenitors of a new wildlife race. The product of these hatcheries is dumped in the woods and fields and streams surrounded by conditions that wiped out its forebears, is turned loose in environments sometimes entirely foreign to the nature of the product.

Restrictive measures alone, or restrictive measures and hatchery programs, are doomed to failure until man realizes that dumping more game and more fish into areas now unable to support what game and fish are left is like moving refugees from abandoned farms into an overcrowded city whose industry cannot provide support for its present population. Hatchery programs may furnish one small phase of a positive attack on the problem, but dependence on restriction and hatcheries only, still further hampers the struggle for existence among the wildlife population.

What, then, remains to be done? First, there must be careful study of the food habits and cover requirements of the desired species; second, a thoroughgoing program of restoration of wildlife needs. The progressive farmer is proud of his clean-cut farm, of his modern wire fence rows along which even the grass is kept cut. He may have a fine woodlot kept clear of unsightly underbrush by annual burning. He has cleared his swampland by drainage, and dug wells to provide himself with water. But the coveys of quail that formerly nested in the underbrush near his woodlot and sought cover from the hawks in overgrown runways along the fence rows are gone. The stream that once coursed across his land all through the year, now flows intermittently, its rapid run-off during the rainy season eating further and further into his valuable crop areas. The fish that formerly rewarded his efforts along that stream are gone, most of them destroyed by the failure of the stream during dry seasons. The trees in his woodlot show signs of decay at their burned knees. The farmer is disappointed in nature, and calls on the government to build quail hatcheries where birds may be raised to replace his lost coveys in an environment where they cannot find protection or support; he calls for hatchery-raised fish to be dumped into his streams—to live only until the first dry season finds them trapped in stagnant pools, dead from suffocation, or driven downstream to other waters, possibly to live in a more kindly environment —possibly to starve in an overcrowded lake like the migrant farmer in the overcrowded city.

The farmer sees the hawks flying overhead, and blames them for the loss of his quail. He shoots down the hawks—and the cotton rats formerly kept under control by the hawks, overrun his lands and destroy the nests of what few quail may be left.

The farmer studies his agricultural magazines, and finds that the market for good beef is on the rise; he calls his friends and neighbors together and starts a movement to make grazing land by draining out the "useless" swamp area, that nobody "gets anything out of." The government

In The Mail

Accept this picture of wild geese and ducks for, sportsmen of Nebraska, here is proof that ducks and geese are not wild if handled right, as this photo proves that it's the hunters that make them wild. This picture was taken at Mr. R. R. Sweet's small game farm two and one-half miles east on No. 19 and No. 26 highways from Bridgeport, Nebraska, one of the garden spots in the North Platte River. You can see these ducks and geese the year 'round. It is a fact that these geese go to the Platte River and hatch their young ones and walk them three-fourths of a mile back to the lake in the latter part of June.

It is history to study the nature of wild geese. If more sportsmen would raise these birds there would be less killed' in the fall of the year. As for one, I am in favor of passing a law that two geese a day would be enough for one hunter or a real sportsman. Some of you real goose hunters take a good look at this picture and study it yourself.

"How much are yer fish, Mr. Goldstein?"

"Eight cents a pound, Mrs. O'Brien."

"I'll take two of them. How much will they be?"

"Let's see. Eight pounds—eight times eight are eighty-four. Take them for seventy-five cents, Mrs. O'Brien."

"Thank ye, Mr. Goldstein, I'll do that. Ye're always good to the Irish, I'll say that fer ye."

I want to thank you for your invitation to write about the trials and tribulations of an early day game warden, but I must beg off for the present. Maybe, some time, I will get to it, but just now I am all in a flutter of anticipation of a few weeks in Florida. Our relatives down there assure us they will feed us, and I am strong for free eats. They, however, have imposed upon me the task of catching fish for three families, but a friend is waiting with his power boat to take me into the West Coast Gulf as often as I desire to go, so I hope to get the job done.

I am going to substitute some verses written by Mr. Ernest McGaffey, Hollywood, California, and sent along to me. I am sure that many of your readers, including myself, can apply almost every line to himself.

Editor's Note: We take time out from our snow scooping and cutting wood for the kitchen stove to extend George our sympathy. We feel that he is being imposed upon down there in Florida.

FIFTY-FOUR YEARS I'VE FOLLOWED THE GUN

Copied for George L. Carter of Lincoln, Nebraska.

BIG GAME IN NEBRASKA

According to figures recently released by the Fish and Wildlife Service of Washington, D. C, there are now 3,283 big game animals in Nebraska. These figures broken down show the state to have 189 white-tailed deer, 2,177 mule deer, 36 elk, 759 prong-horned antelope, and 122 bison. As a state, Nebraska ranks fortieth (40th) in big game populations.

GET A PERMIT

There are still some persons who attempt to hunt and fish without a permit. A number of arrests have been made for this reason during the past year.

Every person going to the field to hunt, or to the waters of the state to fish, must have a permit. The cost is small and all the revenue goes right back to make better hunting and fishing.

The Man With the Hoe

listens to his appeal, the swamp is drained. In many cases the drained swamp areas do not make good grazing lands, and in most cases the swamp lakes that teemed with fish and attracted sportsmen from great distances are dried up. The lakes are gone, the fish are gone, the revenue from guide-fees, and lunch money from the sportsmen is gone from the countryside, so he asks the government to build a dam to form a pond, to stock the pond with hatchery-raised fish, all to replace the lakes and fish which he and his neighbors, with good intentions, of course, destroyed.

Why the farmer? True, he has probably innocently destroyed more upland game by clean farming and more fish by failure to control soil erosion and by unwise drainage than any other factor involved in the destruction of natural environment. That, however, is not the reason for stressing here the activities of the farmer and his neighbors. Just as the farmer has been an important factor in the reduction of the formerly abundant wildlife, so too, is he the most important factor in its restoration. We have mentioned "a positive attack" on the problem. The farmer and his neighbors make up the combat troops to form the spear head of that attack. In his hands are the great upland game areas, in his hands the little game that is left; in his hands, too, are the gullies and the woodlots, and the hedgerows, and the fence corners which are the strategic points from which the attack must be launched.

The plan of attack is not new; it has been tried in some states, and has met with continuing success. The companies and the batallions of the attacking army are the farmer-sportsmen associations organized and operated for the purpose of restoring year by year more and more of the cover, food and water necessary for the defense and support of the wildlife population.

With some of the money now spent on questionable restrictive measures, and on dubious hatching projects, the governmental authorities can support the intelligence staff of the attacking farmer-sportsmen armies. State-supported research can determine the needs, state-supported educational groups can carry the attack plan to the farmer-game units, and the state-sponsored, self-supporting units can carry out the program.

One important consideration remains. An attacking army may sometimes find one of its units in the position of the "Lost Battalion." Some false move, some poorly planned step on the part of a particular unit may interrupt the whole campaign. Good game and fish environments depend upon a natural balance. Whatever action may be taken, all efforts must be directed toward restoration of balance rather than elimination of any particular natural factor which may be considered harmful. The game and the fish have come down through the ages, in abundance, in direct competition with natural predators. Under the protection of cover provided by nature, the game species survived and reproduced in the wilderness. The sickly quail was taken by the hawk, the stunted weakling among the fish became the prey of the gar, but the natural game thrived and increased. The healthy quail and the active trout remained to reproduce. Then man came into the area and unwittingly following the customs of his fathers, he proceeded to upset the natural balance. In clearing his land, he destroyed protection cover and food. In tilling the land, he allowed erosional forces to carry sand and silt too rapidly into streams and lakes. In building his cities he failed to provide for treatment of sewage. In developing his industrial plants, he did not stop to measure the harm done by his wastes. Every series of steps he took to his own advantage left a wake of unrecognized destruction. The sportsman took the game fish, the commercial fisherman took the commercial fish, and the state now raises young fish—to feed the gar pike.

The natural solution of the fish and game problem is, then, to be found in a complete program with its principal effort laid on restoration of natural environment and restoration of natural balance among species. Some restrictive measures, and probably some hatchery programs should be continued, but the major effort must be centered on the restoration feature—and the hope for success of the restoration feature lies in the hands of the farmer. The key to the conservation progress rests in the pocket of the man with the hoe.—From the Louisiana Conservation Review.

The archer fish can project a drop of water with such accuracy and force as to bring down any insect which might alight near the surface of the water.

This fish rises cautiously beneath a fly or bug until his snout projects into the air; then he aims deliberately and shoots with such precision that an insect within a range of 12 to 18 inches is a certain victim.—U. S. Department of Interior.

A sailor, after placing some flowers on a grave in a cemetery, noticed an old Chinaman placing a bowl of rice on a near-by grave, and asked: "What time do you expect your friend to come up and eat the rice?"

The old Chinaman replied with a smile: "Same time your friend come up to smell flowers."

SEVEN OUT OF TEN

No sportsman ever fires a shot at seven out of every possible ten ducks—ducks which MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

What happens to these seven?

Let's see. At the start of the 1940 breeding season about forty million ducks returned to Canadian breeding grounds. About twenty-six million of these should have paired off and raised broods (allowing for excess of drakes and birds which do not breed).

These thirteen million pairs could easily have produced over one hundred million ducks.

BUT

of this possible hundred million, in an average year,

Seventy million out of a possible one hundred million ducks that never migrate southward! Ducks which, if saved, might have added to your sport.

The legal kill of ducks in the U. S. during a sixty-day season with a ten-bird daily bag limit is about nine million birds.

Therefore—

1. Nearly EIGHT TIMES as many ducks are lost by drought, predators, fires and other factors as are killed legally by the sportsmen of the U. S.

2. Drought alone destroys OVER TWICE as many ducks as the sportsmen take.

3. Crows and magpies account for the loss of NEARLY TWICE as many ducks as the legal kill in this country.

4. Fires destroy more potential ducks each year than the sportsmen.

5. Jackfish eat about as many ducks each year as the combined kill of sportsmen in this country.

Can this seven out of ten loss be reduced?

Sure it can.

Tom Main, general manager of Ducks Unlimited (Canada), who has a better grasp of the duck picture in the greatest duck factory on the continent (western Canada) than any other person, believes that this loss of seventy million CAN BE CUT IN HALF.

This would increase the duck flight by THIRTY-FIVE MILLION BIRDS—AN INCREASE of just about FOUR TIMES as many ducks as the sportsmen will take this year!

Are There Civet-Cats in Nebraska?

Immediately there will be difference of opinion on this subject; however, frank and open discussion will bring out the facts. The author will quote from sources which are considered reliable, and it is my hope that some of the boys and girls who read this article will gain some useful knowledge therefrom.

Most of us have grown up believing that the large black animals having broad or narrow white stripes down their backs, bushy tails and a very strong, disagreeable odor were skunks. So far, so good. Now we know another little fellow who has a bushy tail and an unsavory smell, but his body covering, while having the black background, does not have the continuous white stripes. Instead, his coat has broken white lines and spots. This is the fellow we were taught to believe was a civet-cat. Well, you say: If he isn't a civet-cat, what is he, and what is a civet-cat, anyway? First, let us check the facts and see what the family records show. The skunk, and (so-called) civet, are of the order of flesh-eating animals, or carnivora. This order is divided into two suborders: the Pinnipedia and the Fissipedia. The latter group, in which we are interested, is made up of the following classifications in North America:

The preceding chart will help the young trapper to know something of the family grouping of the animals he catches. In this article we are interested only in the last two groups, i. e., the raccoons and weasels. In the raccoon list appears the follows:

Ring-tailed Cat—Other names: Civet-cat, Bassarisk, Bassaris, mountain cat and raccoon fox.

General Description — Size, a trifle smaller than a domestic cat. A slender, graceful animal with cylindrical tail marked by black rings alternating with white. Muzzle pointed; ears rather large; pads of feet, naked; soles, hairy. General color above, buff, tinged with black; below, white; tail white with six or eight black rings. Fur fairly soft. Males weigh about two and a half pounds; females, slightly smaller. Home—California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Feed—Small animals, birds and eggs.

Remarks—The American ring-tailed cat is easily distinguished by its long, ringed tail. Its nearest relative, the raccoon, is larger but has a much shorter tail. The name civet-cat, as applied to this animal, is a misnomer, as the civet-cats are found only in the old world. The American civet-cat is not a cat, being more like a weasel, and it does not have the odor of civet. Dr. Hornaday says: "The Bassarisk is, after the raccoon, the only animal in the United States possessed of a long, bushy tail with alternating black and white rings around it . . . and it has a many-sided appetite like a raccoon."

Thus we now know what the civet-cat is, but what about the little spotted fellow who we often smell and seldom see? Well, fellow trappers, he's just one of several varieties of skunks who, as you know by now, are members of the weasel family.

The large striped skunk is known as Mephitis Mephitis, and the little spotted skunk, in which we are interested, is known as Spilogale putorius, of which there are several genus. The particular one which interests us most is "Rafinesque's Spotted Skunk or Spotted Prairie Skunk (Spilogale interrupta) and is described as follows: White stripes more broken with less white; tail entirely black or with only a few white hairs. Found in Iowa, southern Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and south to east central Texas. Although its coat is differently marked from that of its striped cousin, the spotted skunk is not essentially different in habits. It is a graceful, beautifully marked animal, with spots alternating with stripes. It feeds on mice, crickets, white grubs, grasshoppers, hornets and other noxious pests in season, but will also consume almost any animal matter, eggs and, at times, wild fruit and berries.

Thus we see the little spotted fellows are skunks. And the so-called civet-cat is found only in the warmer climates of the southwestern part of the United States and is of the raccoon family, while the striped and spotted skunks are of the weasel family.

Seven Out of Ten

If these useless—and preventable—losses are cut in half, sportsmen could take FOUR TIMES as many ducks—and still leave a much larger breeding stock for next season.

But let's suppose that this needless loss of seven out of ten ducks is reduced by ONLY FIFTEEN PER CENT—and that is EASY to do. Then duck hunting would be OVER TWICE as good as it is this year.

How can these needless losses, which account for at least seventy per cent of the potential duck crop before the hunter fires a shot, be reduced?

Losses due to drought can be materially reduced by reflooding marshes where millions of ducks formerly bred—marshes which have been ruined by drainage and drought. Young ducks which now die by the million can be saved by establishing permanent water at key points to which they can go when their home sloughs and potholes dry up as many do every year.

Ducks Unlimited already has improved water conditions on fifty breeding ground projects totaling 800,000 acres.

The crow and magpie population of western Canada can and should be still further reduced.

During the past three breeding seasons over one million two hundred forty-five thousand crows and magpies have been killed under Ducks Unlimited supervision.

Marsh and forest fires can be prevented and controlled on areas where ducks breed in greatest numbers.

Every Ducks Unlimited project is protected from fire. Controlled burning of public marshes under Ducks Unlimited supervision has already saved many thousands of acres of good nesting cover, and hundreds of thousands of duck nests.

The loss of eggs and ducks caused by minor predators (skunks, ground squirrels, weasels, etc.) can and is being substantially reduced by D.U. Similarly, losses due to plowing, haying and the taking of eggs and birds by Indians and halfbreeds have already been reduced, and can be still further curtailed.

Status of the Prairie Chickens

THERE has been an upturn in the prairie chicken population of the Nebraska sandhill region. This specie that had been so reduced in number that it was in grave danger of extinction has increased to the point where extinction is unlikely. It is possible that, with a continuation of the present favorable breeding conditions, this bird may again become numerous enough to take its rightful place as a game bird.

The past three breeding seasons have increased the chicken population of the Logan County area 300 per cent. Reports of flocks of 50 to 200 birds are frequent along the South Loup River and on the tableland to the south. It appears that the estimated 300 per cent increase may be low when a reasonably accurate census is taken.

In April and June, 1935, I spent three weeks in Holt, Rock and Brown counties, driving approximately 1,200 miles through the range land. During this trip I kept a record of the birds seen and counted 53 chickens and 9 sharp-tailed grouse.

In the fall of 1940 (October 16th to November 27th), serving as a conservation officer with the Game, Forestation and Parks Commission and traveling about 2,500 miles in the above area and in western Keya Paha County, I saw an estimated 1,500 chickens and 1,000 grouse.

I believe this estimate to be fairly accurate. Many of the flocks were so large that we found it impossible to make accurate counts.

In keeping my records I at no time counted birds seen in territory that we had previously patrolled for fear of duplicating records.

The heaviest population appeared to be in western Keya Paha County, where on November 1st, I counted 343 chickens and 89 grouse.

I believe that there has been a 400 per cent increase in this area since 1935. Farmers, ranchers and sportsmen are agreed that there has been a great increase in the number of chickens and grouse. These men give estimates ranging from 300 to 1,000 per cent.

In comparing the 1935 figures with those of 1940, a number of things must be taken into consideration.

First:

The season of the counts.

In 1935 the count was made in late April and in June, after the big winter flocks had broken up and many of the birds were nesting and were spread out over the territory, while in 1940 the birds had flocked tor the winter.

Second:

The 1935 count was made while traveling alone in a car driven at a fairly high rate of speed. I undoubtedly passed numbers of birds without seeing them.

The 1940 count was made from a car driven at a low rate of speed by Conservation Officer W. J. Weller of Atkinson, giving me a better opportunity to make observations as well as the help of a second man.

Third:

The distance traveled and amount of territory covered was much greater than in the 1935 count.

In the Logan County area I have been able to make very few observations, having been absent much of the time. During the week of November 10th we were in Logan County. Many of the roads were blocked with snow and travel confined to the main roads. A good number of birds were seen.

However, conversations with hunters who were in the field during pheasant season indicate a decided increase.

These reports, with the data collected by me during the past three years, form the basis of my estimate of increase.

I believe that the cause of increase can be attributed to one major factor and probably one or more secondary factors.

THE MAJOR FACTOR: RESTORATION OF NESTING AREAS.

The Range Program practice of "Deferred Grazing" has been of major importance. This program has each year established areas with sufficient vegetative growth to provide nesting cover for the chickens and grouse.

Important secondary factors have been seasons favorable for raising young birds and an abundance of food.

WITH THE CONTINUATION OF ANY PROGRAM THAT PROVIDES SUITABLE NESTING AREAS FOR THESE BIRDS, I BELIEVE THAT THEY WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE IN NUMBERS AND EVENTUALLY RE-ESTABLISH THEMSELVES OVER THE RANGE COUNTRY; WITHOUT IT, I BELIEVE THEM DOOMED.

Doing something nobody else can do, or doing it better, or doing it for less, or doing something anybody else can do, but doing it with love in your heart—any one of these spells business success.

FATHER FORGETS

Listen son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

These are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called "Goodbye, Daddy," and [ frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!"

Then it began all over again in the later afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boy friends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive—and if you had to buy them you would be more careful I Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up from my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding—this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measurmg you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown

What Nebraska Is Doing to Restore Quail

inducing the stocking of surrounding areas and providing a good demonstrative situation to attract the attention of other landowners. It will also show that the birds can be attracted to other portions of a farm by the creation of conditions favorable to them on areas which are useless to agriculture. By the extension of present covey ranges, an added advantage of a more farm-wide insect control can be obtained due to greater distribution of birds throughout cultivated fields. Wherever possible, with cooperation of the owner, fence-line shrub plantings will be created to provide runways conducive to spreading the quail into cultivated fields. Such plantings will aid in weed control and improve the appearance of the farm in addition to making feed supply more available to the birds.

In general, it may be stated that the attitude of the people in this section of the state is decidedly in favor of the quail and their restoration. This is true especially among the farmers, some of whom have small coveys of quail on their lands at this time. This situation has aided greatly in the setting up of the program and will stimulate the protection of the birds once they are stocked. Under such conditions, "poaching" should not represent a very large percentage of loss. Predation can be expected of the large number of stray eats, from the red fox which seems to be increasing, and from hawks. Severe sleet and ice storms are the greatest single factor in killing quail in this area, but this loss is directly due to lack of suitable winter cover in many areas. It is hoped that the project will restore some of the winter cover and reduce this loss.

To date, thirty (30) project refuges have been selected, signed to agreement, and posted as official game refuges. Ten (10) more have been located and are ready to sign to agreement and post, making a total of forty (40).

Of the thirty already organized, five have been mapped in detail as to fields, streams, gullies and vegetative types. Planting agreements have been reached on all of them and detailed planting plans have been drawn upon eleven refuges. Such plans on all the rest will be complete by March, 1941, and planting will begin at this time. Fencing materials have been ordered and fencing out of eroded restoration areas will be carried on through the winter and summer. Most of the labor will be supplied by farmers and landowners with the exception of Pawnee County where Civilian Conservation Corps labor will be utilized by cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service. Some fall plantings were made involving the seeding of fifteen hundred (1500) pounds of mixed grass seed. Grass plantings were made along fence lines and in plots to establish nesting cover in areas where it was not already available.

In gully plantings, it is planned to use woody shrubs which are native to the region and will provide both feed and cover, especially winter cover which is most needed. A group of such plants has been selected and an interspersed planting using some of all will be used in each project. They are as follows:

Spirea Van Houte— (Excellent winter cover, does not spread, drought resistant.)

Blackberry—(Good feed and cover, forms bramble beds.)

Raspberry—(Good feed and cover, forms bramble beds.)

Currant—(Good feed and cover.)

Choke Cherry—(Good feed, medium cover.)

Wild Plum—(Good feed and cover.)

Gooseberry—-(Good feed and cover.)

Red Cedar—-(Persistent feed and good cover.)

Wild Grape—(Excellent feed and good cover in association with brush.)

Bittersweet—(Good feed.)

Virginia Creeper — (Good feed and cover.)

Elderberry—(Good feed, many seeds.)

Red Mulberry—(Good feed and cover.)

Dogwood—(Good feed, persistent fruits.)

Close cooperation has been secured from the Zoology Department at the University of Nebraska. A graduate student working toward an advance degree has been assigned to study food and cover problems with special reference to quail in Southeastern Nebraska. The results of such studies should prove very helpful in the work of the Restoration Program of the Game Commission.

A farmer wrote to the mail-order house: "Please send me one of them gasoline engines you advertise on page 785 and if it's any good I'll send you a check for it."

The following reply came back promptly: "Send us the check and if it is any good we will send you the engine."

A lady overheard her colored maid make a rather short reply at the telephone and then hang up. She called to her:

"Mandy, who was that on the phone?"

" 'Tain't nobody, ma'am. Jes' a lady sayin' 'It's a long distance from New York,' and Ah says, 'Yas'm, it sure is.'"

Scientific data compiled by unbiased competent investigators confirm the fact that nearly every important natural resource of our nation has been and is still being used or wasted more rapidly than it is being replenished.

Farm Pond Management

filled and a great effort and expense has gone for nothing.

If these ponds had been managed and controlled, they could be things of beauty, affording the pond-owner some recreation, supplying good fresh water for livestock, and the plantings around the ponds and in the waterways would have formed a home for wildlife.

These plantings can also be such as to produce a berry crop for the farmer.

Grass waterways can produce crops of hay. These items present a decided profit from land which is otherwise producing nothing but mud and dust.

Local sportsmen or sportsmen's organizations can take advantage of such opportunities for aiding wildlife by contacting farmers in their vicinities who have such ponds and who would be willing to improve them by management. Most farmers would be glad to cooperate by fencing out ponds and gullies if the sportsmen would furnish seeds and shrubbery to be planted around them and help them in securing water plants for the pond.

If every farm pond was built and maintained permanently and developed into a haven for fish, ducks and upland game birds, it would make an improvement for the farm and help the local fish and game supply.

A complete listing of suitable plants for pond plantings, erosion control and favorable as aids to fish and wildlife includes the following:

(1). All pond weeds, mosses, lilies, duckweeds and water hyacinth.

Take a Boy Along

over the Hannibal bridge as the horses trotted homeward.

That must have been one of the times when I'd dozed a bit, although I'd tried so hard to keep my eyes propped open. But you see, something wonderful had happened, and I wasn't worrying any more. Because I had said: "Uncle Will, I'm awful glad you took me today. I thank you and Big Friday and everybody an awful lot, and I hope you let me go again."

And Big Friday had cleared his throat and said: "Yes, sir, boy. You set your alarm clock for five o'clock next Sunday morning and we'll be around with the wagon. And don't you thank us, because we've had a lot more fun out of it than you have."

But now that I think of it, I did thank Big Friday and Uncle Will again. I thanked them thousands of times, long after the score or more of years had passed in which we fished together. I thanked them for the knowledge of the outdoors which they had given me, for the ability to make a certain little religion for myself, built on a love of beauty that comes from seeing the sun rise over the serenity of placid water, of watching the blooming and fruition of growing things, of the time to contemplate and think things out for oneself. And there are times that I thank them for even greater things: there were street-corner gangs even in those days, and trouble for kids to get into. And I've wondered many times if it wasn't Big Friday and Uncle Will and the other fellows in that jolting old moving van, talking, apparently to each other, of how a fellow's got to buck the world for himself, that made me keep my chin up when going was tough, and gave me the fighting spirit necessary to work twenty hours a day for years to break into the toughest racket in this world, that of writing.

And that's why I no longer look on Jim as a short sport—because he isn't any more. Jim no longer grabs the front end of the boat. He gives it to his fishing partner and gets just as much fun out of seeing him take a fish as from getting one himself. Usually he got more, because Jim is old at the game, and his partners these days are all kids, often on their first trip.

For that matter, I've gotten a lot more fun out of fishing later. Fishing was getting to be pretty hard work, seeing I had something of a reputation. When you've got a reputation, neighbors won't take an alibi. They think you're lying when you tell them the fish weren't biting. They stare at you as though you'd cheated them out of something that really belonged to them, and they say in a pained tone:

"But you promised you'd bring us some. And we'd counted on it, because everybody knows that you always catch fish!"

It's a great alibi to be able to grin and say:

"Yes, usually I do. But I had a boy along today, and it was just so much fun watching him that I sort of laid down on the job!"

For if you think you've gotten fun out of fishing, wait until you've made the break from fisherman selfishness into fisherman rejoicing—and taken a boy along. If you've got a boy in your family, there is no greater heritage that you can give him than to impart to him your love of the outdoors by actual demonstration. Years may flow by, into the ones where your hair is white and your bones ache; you may long ago forget the first time you took him fishing. But he won't. He'll remember the clothes you wore, and exactly how you stepped into the boat to show him how to maintain balance. He'll remember those first lessons in casting or even baiting a hook as though they were written in gold. He'll remember every fleecy cloud in the sky that day, every streak of bronze and pastel when the sun sank—oh, so much too soon for him.

He'll cherish every word you spoke, every little joke you told, and the lessons you unconsciously imparted to him, in good sportsmanship, in good citizenship. Long years afterward, you'll find that he asked you questions that day which had a tremendous bearing upon life, breaking into confidences from which he had recoiled before, because you were his father and not his pal. But out there in the boat, or lazing about on the grassy bank of a stream, everything was different. Mother wasn't around, or other folks or influences. He could unburden as one fellow to another, and ask things which had been locked within his secret self. There is nothing a boy longs more to worship than his father, and there is no place where he can go upon his mental knees more easily than when you're jest out fishin'. So take your boy along, and if you haven't a boy, get someone else's boy. tt'll be a tonic, and an eye-opener. You'll find yourself an earthly god, and within your hands the material to mould as you will into humaneness, strength, character, stamina. The red-winged blackbirds will sing the sweeter for it, the fish will fight harder, and the shadows of evening come far too soon.

My job, as sort of unofficial chronicler of the G-men, leads me often to unpleasant facts. One of the greatest of these is the steady upswing in crime by youth, thoughtless, crazy crime, the kind that is bred by directionless brains. And I've often found myself wondering how many of these kids—all of them right-minded youngsters before they got into the wrong associations—would have turned out differently if they'd only had someone to point out the glories of a swirling trout pool, or paint the imagery of a flight of birds, north-bound in the lush springtime. I wonder how many cell blocks would be vacant instead of overcrowded if these kids had been able to turn to a man they could look upon as a pal, and ask momentous questions under the cover of just talkin'.

Other persons must think the same Way. I have heard of a judge out in Iowa who is taking out boys who have started to transgress and teaching them the give and take of sportsmanship, the ability to grin when luck has run the wrong way, the joy of simple things, the mealiness of a potato baked in the coals, or the nectar-taste of coffee after a cold rain. I wonder if he isn't going to have a lot of good luck with his scheme. And I wonder if every fisherman who takes a boy along, his own or his neighbor's, or some boy from the other side of the tracks, won't be repaid a thousand times for his thoughtfulness. It's a sort of new kind of treasure hunt, treasure to be stored in youthful brains long after your fishing days are over, when someone is happier, stronger, more alert because you wanted the time of your life—and took a boy along.—Reprinted by courtesy of South Bend Bait Company.

Father Forgets

by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me goodnight. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy—a little boy!"

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

"Father Forgets" appeared first as an editorial in the Saturday Evening Post and in 1935 it was condensed and used in the Reader's Digest.

City Banker (visiting the farm): "I suppose that's the hired man?"

Farmer (who had visited banks): "No, that's the first vice-president in charge of cows."

Nebraska Fishing Laws and Regulations

It shall be unlawful, except in the Missouri River under commercial permit, to take a daily bag or have more than twenty-five (25) fish of all species combined in possession at any one time.

All fish caught that are under the size limits enumerated above must be returned to the water at once with as little injury as possible.

"Daily Bag" means fish taken from midnight to midnight.

"Possession any time" means fish in possession of person taking same at any and all times.

Carp, buffalo, suckers and other non-game fish may be taken with hook and line at any time without limits on size, bag or possession. They may be speared between sunrise and sunset from April 1st to December 1st.

Under proper Commercial Permit issued, catfish may be taken from the Missouri River by nets, the meshes of which are not less than one and a half inches square, at any time of the year except from March 16 to May 1.

It is POSITIVELY FORBIDDEN to take the legal bag of fish and return to fishing waters and take another bag the same day. Fishermen are warned that persons so doing will be prosecuted and full damages of $5.00 per fish assessed.

Effective January 1, 1940, the Hunting and Fishing fees are as follows:

Combination Hunting and Fishing...............$1.60

Hunting........................................$1.10

Fishing ....................................____$1.10

The Nebraska state laws require every person (male or female) over sixteen years of age to hold a permit.

Certain state-owned lakes are not open at all times or hours to fishing. The following information, which is posted at the lake, is for your information:

No fishing is permitted at any state-owned lakes from 10 P.M. to 4 A.M.

On state-owned lakes do not use other than regular lines attached to poles having not more than two hooks thereon and not more than two lines to any one person.

A Personal Message from the Nebraska Game Commission to All Permit Buyers---

You, as a purchaser of a hunting, fishing or trapping permit, are entitled to know what the Nebraska Game Commission does with the fee you pay. This message will give you some facts about your Commission and its activities. Read it carefully.

The upkeep on Nebraska's fish, game and recreation grounds does not cost the property taxpayers anything at the present time, as all its expenses are met by money collected from the sale of permits to hunt, fish and trap.

Here are some of the things your permit fee is used for:

Conservation officers to protect your wildlife.

Fish hatcheries to raise fish to stock our rivers, lakes and ponds.

Game management, sanctuaries and resting grounds for birds.

State recreation grounds for fishing, picnicking and camping.

Fish rescue work and distribution.

Research—Investigation of diseases, food, cover, etc.

Education—Motion pictures for schools and clubs.

Publications—Game laws, Outdoor Nebraska, maps, and so forth.

Purchase of permits, badges, supplies and so forth for administration.

Cooperation with Federal authorities in migratory waterfowl and upland game management.

Cooperation with 4-H clubs and summer conservation camps.

Exhibits at state fair.

Building up and conserving our natural outdoor resources.

More than a half million men, women and children in Nebraska enjoy the privileges of fishing, hunting and camping, and nearly everyone in the state benefits either directly or indirectly as a result of the conservation of our natural resources.

Get your permit early in the year. By so doing, you will have it when you are ready to go hunting or fishing, and you will aid the Commission greatly in carrying on its 1941 program. Remember that it is your permit fee, along with that of your fellow sportsmen, that keeps the good work under way. Funds are needed early in the year in order to provide more pleasure for you.