The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-08-22
OF GAME
Chickens, Quail and Ducks
Never More Plentiful.
The Open Season on Chickens and
Ducks Begins in Two
Weeks.

and fish commission give assurance
that sportsmen will this year have
the best shooting in Minnesota thai
has been known in Minnesota for sew.
eral seasons. Every place in the state
where shooting has been good in past
years reports game plentiful. and
many that were not considered good
shooting resorts, report chickens and
cartridges in abundance.
The season for prairie chicken,
snipe and grouse, except ruffied
grouse, opens Sept. 1, and continues
until Nov. 1. The supply of chickens
has not been so large for many years
owing to the law prohibiting the sale
of game, and the favorable season.
The birds are now plump and about
three-quarters grown.
The entire western half of Minnesota
is great chicken country.
The season for quail, cartridges,
ruffied grouse or pheasants does not
open until Oct. 1, and extends to Dec
/. Quail are this year more abundant
than ever in the history of the state.
They live in the state the year
around, and the past two winters
have been so favorable that, with the
prohibition of the sale of game, they
are now found in almost every county
in the southern half of the state.
Quail were formerly found only in the
extreme southern part of the state,
but within the past few years they
have worked northward, until now
they are abundant in the middle of
the state. They have not forsaken
their old haunts in the southern coun-
ties, however, and are more abundant
than ever. The birds this year are
unusually tame, which proves that
Little illegal shooting has been done.
The partridge shooting will be best
this year in the Counties between st.
Paul and Duluth and in the center of
the state, although there are many
birds in the southern counties.
The season for ducks, geese and all
aquatic fowls opens Sept. 1 and con-
tinues until Jan. 1. The prohibition
Of spring shooting has done much to
increase the number of Aquatic
birds in Minnesota, and the prohibi
lion of the sale Of game has also had
sven better effect than its advocates
aad anticipated. The principal duck
and geese shooting is afforded by the
light south of Canadian birds.
The reports from across the border
ire that birds are more plentiful than
or many years. The principal flight
# Canadian birds Ks. is southwark
through the eastern part of the Dako-
as and the western part of Minnesota.
rhe birds follow the Red river valley
md the chain of small lakes which
xtends from Heron lake north to the
arge swamps near the border.
The duck shooting in the eastern
art of the state is afforded almost en-
irely by homegrown ducks, and
hese are more numerous than at any
ime during the past twenty years,
he prohibition of spring shooting has
cad ducks to return to old nesting
faces that have not been patronized
or twenty years, as the spring shoot
ng gradually drove the bir Is farther
nd farther north for breeding.
The law prohibits the wanton de-
truction of birds, and allows each
erson to kill not more than twenty
We birds in one day. A penalty of
rom So to $40 is provided for each
ird killed in excess of that number.
The supply of big game promises to 1
g even better than last year, and deer
re 30 common in the northern part of {
he state that they frequently become
nuisance, seriously damaging the
sttIer's crops. The season for deer is
rom Nov. 10 to Nov. 80, and for .
loose and caribou from Nov. 10 to ,
Tov. 90.