The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-05
DESTRUCTIVE ANIMALS.
Austin Corbin's Experience in At
tempting to Raise Small Game,

tempting to Raise Small Game,
From the Baltimore American.
The Pennsylvania state board of agri-
culture recently sent out a circular MAX
ing inquiries upon q number of birds and
other animals for the killing of which it
is proposed bounties shall be paid. The
work was done under the direction of
State Ornithologist B. Fl. Warren, and
has elected very satisfactory results.
Austin Corbin. formerly president Of the
Philadelphia and Reading railroad, and
the owner of Blue Mountain park in New
Hampshire, one of the finest private
game preserves in the United States,
replied in substance as follows to the cir
cular.
Every one of the animals you name
are most injurious to all species of small
game. When inclosed my park, about
25, 900 acres, there were a few foxes
there. l do not believe there were very
many, because the hunters We're allowed
to go over the entire property before it
was inclosed and it was believed that
they were pretty well cleaned out. The
inclosure was finally completed in the
fail of 1890, and there were great many
fine rabbit localities inside, as well as a
great number of very large species of
hare which were said TO have been intro
duCed into the country originally from
England. The shooting over portions of
this territory the winter previous had
been excellent. There were also many
partridges.
y put into the park over two years ago
over one hundred German hare and five
hundred quail Last year the foxes had
become so numerous that they killed al
most entirely the rabbits and hares, as
well as quail. | do not presume that l
had last year One-quarter of the num-
Der of patridges that the territory pro-
I,t,oI hof,r.o 10
There is no question whatever about the
Importance of getting rid of the foxes.
! They hunt day and night and they will
destroy every individual bird and nest in
| the park if they are allowed to increase to
any considerable extent. They are es-
pecially bad for the young birds and
! equally so for the rabbits, whether old or
young. 1t is not at all certain that they
! are not more or less dangerous to the
| very young fawns, although | have never
| known of an instance where they killed
| them Minks and weasels are also bad
| for the small game. WOodchucks are not
! Objectionable to me, especially
in the park, because all they do is to eat
! grass, and there is an abundance of that.
| Skunks ! should not particularly object
/ to, although they are also destructive TO
| Young birds. We have very few there.
! Certain hawks and some owls of course
! are destructive and should be killed. We
! see occasionally up in that country wild
! cat, but there are very few OF them and
| not enough TO trouble US. At the same
| time every one of the Gnimals you men
| ton ought to be eXterminated, and no
| state could do a better thing than TO pass
/ an act offering premiums for the destruc-
! ton OF them. If the foxes and mmks
/ could be raised in large quantities for
/ their fur as in old times, without,too serious
| injury to the small wild game, which was
/ then in abundance, it might do, but at
! present no state can hardly afford to let
! them live. l am very happy to give you
! the result Of my experience, and my park
! being inclosed sand stocked with this
] small native game gives me an opportuni-
! ty of speaking very decidedly upon this
! question after having had all my young
game cleaned out by these animals with
| in the last thirty months. -
Mr.. Corbin has in his park Virginia
deer, black-tailed deer, Rocky mountain
Whitehall, elk and German deer, number
ing in all about 300 individuals; about 46
moose, nearly 200 wild boar, from the
| Black Forest of Germany, and 30 head of
buffalo. The park contains over 40 miles
of trout streams, which abound in fish
| For several months past Mr. Corbn has
been obliged to employ two men to shoot
req foxes, which are killing all the quail
! and pheaSantS in his inClOSure