The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1902-03-04

western states, where they have to
great measure taken the place of the
native partridge or grouse. Thereis no
reason why the birds should not thrive
in New Jersey. We tried the expert
ment, and from nearly every place
where the birds had been put out we
received encouraging letters and fire.
quently glowing accounts of the sue
cess of the experimnt The birds bred
well, and. although the old birds, from
the fact that they had been bred in
confinement, were rather tame and
thus became easy marks for gunners,
the young birds We're sufficiently wild
to afford good sport and to preserve
themselves. Unfortunately measure
we had introduced prohibiting their
killing for term of years failed to be-
come law. The next legislature was
equally obdurate in this direction, and
by the time the following legislature
passed the present law the birds had
been killed off. Want of funds has pre-
vented us from pursuing the expert
ment but the matter will in all proba-
bility be taken up again.
THAT the stocking of quail has been
a success cannot be denied, for, ac-
cording to all the accounts we have
received from all parts of the state,
there are now more quail in New Jer-
sey than there have been for many
years. We were very careful to Sc
cure only western birds coming from
frh Io%4 80. ,-4o
the rigors of our winters, for it is
well known fact that southern quail
migrate In the late fall. Money ex-
pended for southern birds is wasted
but the quail we have distributed bred
here and did well. What we shall do
this year do not know, for the mar
kets have been practically closed for
live quail by the enactment of strict
laws in different states prohibiting
their trapping and expectation. About
the only state left open to us is Cali
fornia, which still permits the expor-
tation of quail under restrictions from
the state authorities. Whether the
California quail will withstand our
winters is something cannot tell We
may try the experiment if inquiry war
rants belief that it may prove sue
cessful. The California bird would
certainly be glorious acquisition to
our wild fauna. and the temptation to
try to acclimate it here is certainly
great. But the fact that we cannot
secure any more of the common west
ern quail affords another strong argu-
ment in favor of further restrictions
and for the passage of law limiting
the number of birds that may be law
fully taken in days cunning
"As to whether the introduction of
the pike perch, the white bass, the
channel catfish and other fish brought
on from the great lakes will prove sue
cessful time a )ne can tell We have
had very satisfactory reports from
many waters where these fish were
introduced, but whether the success
was merely spasmodic, whether their
breeding was merely due to peculiar
and fortuitous circumstances or wheth-
er it will be lasting cannot as yet be
told Hundreds of circumstances,
many of which we know nothing at
all about, govern the well being and
the multiplication of fish. Mankind
has been studying fish for centuries,
but what we do not know about fish
would fill a far larger volume than
what we do know about fish. Why
fish should multiply one year and not
another is something we cannot tell.
This is not at all surprising Ask a
farmer why it is that one year he has
abundant crops and the following year
none at all, and he will simply shrug
his shoulders and say he does not
know. He uses the same quantity of
seed, the same quantity of compost
and does just as much work enc year
as he does the following, but the re-
suits are vastly different. How is it
that an apple tree one year will be
laden with fruit and the next year not
produce enough to make decent pie?
And yet here you have the soil, the
tree and all its surroundings under
your eye. You can use the microscope,
and you can make chemical analyses,
but all the science in the world will
never answer that simple question.
With the fish you have the impenetra-
BILE veil cast over their doings by the
water. Fish keep moving about con-
tnually in search of food or for some
other reason. The large fish feed on
the small ones, these on the small ami
mails that live on the weeds and other
subaQueous plants, these plants sub
sist on the food found in the soil. and
this food subsists on the Lord knows
what, but single break in this chain
md there is disaster. If the weed in
the water dies, the small animals
which obtained life from the weed