The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1911-08-24
HEN HAS HARD TASK
Experiment With Pheasant's
Eggs Quite Expensive.
Domestic Fowl Compelled to Sacrifice
Its Own Progeny in H%atching-
Law Will Protect English
Bird for Years.

Jefferson City, Mo.-More work for
the patient Missouri hen!
In addition to her other duties, she
Is now expected to hatch out pleas
ants.
The pheaasnt is a sort of everybody
works-but-mother bird, which will not
sN-or is it seton its own eggs
while in captivity. 1t being manifest
that George can't do it, there is no
way out Of it except to shove the un-
welcome task onto the hens.
That is what State Game Commits
sioner Tolerton is doing in his effort
to introduce the English pheasant in
Missouri. 1t will be a thankless task,
too, for as soon as a pheasant is large
enough to get about, the first thing he
does is to 60 out foraging for chicken
feed. He will even steal from his own
foster mother.
In his efforts to accustom pheasants
to the Missouri climate Tolerton is
sending p%heasants free to all farmers
and poultry raisers who ask for them.
The result is that colonies of the
gaudy birds are now to be found in
many parts Of the state.
Farmers already are loudly COM
planning that the pheasants are rob-
bling their chickens of feed. For this
there is nc remedy, as it is unlawful
to kill a pheasant in Missouri.
Almost any n who asks for pleas
ants can get them from Tolerton.
There are only a few simple condi-
tions. First of these is that, no mat
ter how many %pheasants you raise,
you will not be permitted to kill one.
even for your W table.
You must keep an exact account Of
the eggs laid and you must either send
these eggs to the state poultry farm
at Jefferson City or set them under
your hens and send the young birds to
the game commissioner for distribu-
| ton in the state.
Here is where the hen gets the
worst of 1t. After she has taken all
| the trouble to hatch out the pleas
ants they are taken away from her.
| Worse than that, she might seek con-
/ O4oC1O Ill AoICA4A6 OuI CIV SlA1i
dren of her own, but wen this pleas
ure is denied her. For, until the
young pheasants are two months old,
the only food on which they will
thrive is fresh hens eggs.
Biddy's nest is robbed to feed them
and she must bear the double injus-
tice to bringing into the world crea-
lures for which she has no natural
affection and of seeing them thrive on
the ruins Of her fondest hopes for a
posterity which would do credit to the
great Missouri hen family.
At the experimental farm near JEFF
ferson City $50 hens are working over
time laying eggs for young p%heasants
to eat.
The pheasant in it's present stage
Of Americanization Is not a revenue
maker for anybody. The law forbids
t. from being used as food and the
regulations surrounding the distribu-
ion of the birds prevent even the
most opulent from breakfasting on
bacon and pheasant eggs. The hen,
on the other hand, is the states great
est wealth producer and her friends
can't see why she should be showed
into the background by an imported
fowl whose beauty Is Of about as
much practical value as Is that of the
aurora borealis.
Commissioner Tolerton says that
the pheasant is one Of the greatest OF
game birds and that in time the spe.
cies will be so plentiful in Missouri
that pheasant hunting will be per.
mitted.