The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-06-04
BY s. 3. HUDDLEsToN.

From so to Is years ago there were
numerous whole sections of uncleared
forests in ono body in Wayne and ad.
joining counties. In 1858 the writer
went with Frank Bilby into one OF
these large forests, then known as the
big woods, eight miles south Of Dub
lin. Mr. Bilby with rifle came into
such square range with two wild tur-
keys perched pretty high in a tree.
and he shot and killed two of them at
one shot Hunting such game az
turkeys, pigeons and quail in their
season and professional trappers made
money at. trapping for furs and hunt
ing for eatable game. The gray sduir-
rel was a pest to the farmers in their
day. The fox squirrel came a little
later and drove the smaller gray SPUR
rel away, and they were no less pest
in the corn field.
Nuts Fatten Hogs.
The forests abounded with nuts
that were food for birds, hogs and
man. Many hogs were butchered
that had been fattended on the acorns
and other nuts they found in the for
est. People who came in to this new
ed did not suppose the acorns were Of
any value to man except as starting
food for swine, which we're later fully
fattened on the acorn. Earlier pho.
neers found that some of the sweeter
acorns made savory food for them
selves. They were often dried, husked
and pounded or ground into meal and
used as bread stuffs. They were
specially priced when rosted and made
into coffee. 1t was said to have been
better and far more healthful than our
staple coffee, not having the drying,
unwholesome properties of the latter.
But the destruction of the forest,
and with it the beech trees with their
mast for the wild pigeon has banished
that prince Of all delicious came birds
from all this beech timbered North
America Many old people are still
living who remember how they looked
forward with longing anticipation for
the spring time coming of our migra-
tory pigeons. They came also in the
autumn, but this visit was so early
that the cold weather drove them far
Their south before the nuts had fallen,
and the spring time was the time Of
their harvest.
RecaIl~Pieeon Flocks.
Those Of US who can look back fifty
to seventy years remember the great
clouds of pigeons that came over in
millions so closely flocked together
that not spark of sunshine could
pass between them, and 1t seemed like
a great rainstorn was lowering over
US. The roar of their fluttering wings
was like the roar of an approaching
wind storm or like distant thunder.
They would sometimes light in the
trees in such vast numbers that their
weight would break down great
branches and sometimes the whole
tree tops were stripped of branches.
Their meat was highly palatable and
brought good price on the market.
Men knowing their roosting places
would go into the forest with a shot
gun and a lantern. The birds seeing
the lantern made a fluttering noise
enabling the hunter to exactly locate
them, and a couple Of discharges from
a double barrel shot gun was sure to
bring down a large number of birds.
The most successful way of catch
ing them was by net traps. A net like
a fish seine, but about II to IS feet
wide and perhaps twice that length,
was set upon cleaned patch Of
ground. A rope fastened to stake or
a bush at one end and fastened near
the middle, or some Is feet from the
end was the net woven in along one
edge. Then the other end of the rope
is passed to man who is hidden in
a fodder shock or brush shield.
Poles as long as the width OF the