The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-15
SEA GULL FARMING.
4 Novel business ON Long Island
Tame CULTS Accomplishments.
From the New 90 30.

From the New York Post.
A novel industry is conducted by Fritz
Gritman, an old bayman, on the small
beach off the south coast of Long Island
known as Jones' Beach. It IS within the
recollection Of thousands of guuners and
summer visitors when the Long Island
beaches were crowded with sea-guils and
small summer gulls, beautiful birds which
sailed gracefully over the beach and the
water, utterly harmless, and asking of
nature only a small supply Of the fish
of the sea as their food In the past ten
years these beautiful birds have been
almost annihilated, and. strange 10 say
their cruel obliteration is due entirely to
women, who would in most cases cry out
in denunciatlon of any cruelty to a bird.
Fashion decreed that wings such as
gulls' wings should be a fashionable
ddOrnment Of WOmen's hats. This gave
a market value to the hitherto value
less dead gull. 80 cents pair being offered
for the wings. The baymen at once
turned themselves into gUll-hunters, al
most to the neglect of Wild DUCKS and
geese in the Great South Bay. There was
more money in killing gulls tnan any other
birds, for man could bag several hun
dred in day very easily.
But the supply soon ran out, and now
the trade in gulls wings is looking for
new sources. The price for good wings
has advanced. and they are worth from
80 TO 90 cents pair These soft, light
cOlored wings Of the gulls sell as dove
wings, and bring the price of the latter
in the market. Ninety -hundredths
of the social ed dove wings worn on street
hats are gulls wings, for it would be a
manifest impossiblity to supply doves
wings IN the quantities now worn upon
WOmen's hats.
The barren island Of sand and meadow
grass known as Jones Beach Is natural
home of the gulls, and II they are let alone
they multiply there rapidly. A few speci-
mems of the birds We're left on the beach,
and they laid their eggs in the warm sand
in the summer 10 be Matched out by the
sun. Gulls never sit upon their eggs az
other birds, but let the sun and warm
sand DO the motherly act for them. Fritz
collected all Of the eggs he could fnd,
and placed them In little round holes in
the sand near his hut to hatch. In a
week or two more than score Of little
guilS were running around. A strong
wire netting confined them within a GER
tain limited space. and also kept the old
gulls from reaching them. These latter
however, fed the young, VOracious birds
with hsh, which they would drop 70 them
from above The little gulls In this way
We're reared without any labor on the
part of the OLD bayman.
As the season advanced Fritz collect
ed more eggs from the beach until he had
Matched out over 200 gulls the first year
This was o big start, and this year he eN-
poets to market nearly 500 pairs OF WINS
AS most OF the wings are from young
birds he viii receive at least 80 cents a
| pair. and he Will net a good sum and
| carry enough birds over for next year 8
/ breeding.
/ The man does not pretend to cage his
/ birds, or to confne any more than a Ger
tain number of good breeders. Jones'
1 Beach is only "A small island. but the
/ birds once bred upon ii do not forsake IT,
/ They are essentially home birds. and only
/ 90 away in the winter to warmer places
4 invariably returning and breeding on the
same beach. Gunners tacitly understand
1 that they are not to modest Fritz's gulls
/ on the beach. and 1t is very rarely that
! he is disturbed iIt this way. Every morn
/ ing during the breeding season the old
/ bayman goes forth and collects all of the
/ eggs on the beach, and places them in the
sand near his hut TO hatch out. There are
many enemies to the eggs, and many are
broken and eaten up before they hatch
unless pTOtected in this way. When the
birds are large enough to fly and care for
themselves they are turned out. BY this
| time they are attached to the place and
always look upon it as their home.
In the autumn after the breeding sea-
son Fritz has several weeks Of great gun
ming The gulls are shot by the hundreds
and their wings shipped to market The
stock is not reduced too low, however
About fifty Of the best breeders are kept
in the net during this hunting season so
that they will not be frightened away
from the island by the noise. They are
not turned loose until late in the autumn
and they are sure to return the following
spring When winter comes on the breed
ing farm is deserted and old Fritz returns
to the mainland.
Usually the birds secure all of the fish
they need for food. but the old keeper
spends a good part Of his time IN hauling
the net around the bay. The small fish
are thrown to the gulls, and the mark
etable ones are shipped in ice to New York
In this way he makes a double profit In
speaking of his work and his experiences,
the old man said In an interviews
Il took this work because / thought
there was money in it. never heard tell
of any such business; but 1 made up my
they could use EN-. don't do nothin'
but give them protection. and they breed
and look after themselves. We have lots
of duck-gunners down here IN the season
but they never touch my birds They're
only after game birds, an they don't
bother the gulls. ! have contracts with
several large dealers who take all the
wings I can get. Moreover / am now
raising some Of the old birds for trap
shooting. They are better for this work
in some ways than pigeons. They jump
up quicker and fly rapidly away from the
| trap, so that II Is hard work to shoot
them. 1t IS 2 better test Of a gunner s
aim to shoot gulls from traps than pig