NE WS Y r'im'D'ri-innm.DsooN'rns'r\ Yet another thought strikes ms relation to this most valuable It will be no news to that another bird pest is into Canada from f the I refer to the European a bird not unlike the' and with the same bad of molesting the smaller This bird has been seen in districts round Hudson'e Bay summer, and may easily have present in' our own province, not recorded. It is very and hardy, and assembles great numbers, just as grackles It is evident than that the small are to have a new foe (ls as the grackles and crows) that ultimately their associat- with man will be_ their best The marauding birds a rule keep away from human habitations, and if we can show the Junooes. sparrows (not domes- tie), and warblers that they are safe “under our wing", we 'shall have gone a long way to save them from extension. _ Ict. each contestant make and hang out a bird-box near the feeding station, to induce the birds to become "box-minded". Birds do not catch on at once: I had a box out all last year and ne- ver a bird went near it. I have heard of bird lovers keeping a box out three years before (gay got a tenant: but once the irds make up their minds to "rent" it. it was used annually, and additional box- es were occupied. probably by the previous year's young. It is impor- tant that the box ` looks old and weathered, and it may be neces- sarytostainittomakeitappear antique. Birds seem to be suspi- lous of new boxes. _ Nhlif I i We are so drunk with names, we 3 naming ones. Reeling from stone to star, in- ebrlaic ' _With flushed preaumption-1abel- -linsgnen and suns. ,_ And all things else that names ' did not create; I . Wears loproud ofnames,we naming fools, Btrutting in titled plumage, like puffed birds, - , Using our names as shiiilow, glit- tering pools To mirror our vain selves in = vairiei- words; H;I'l1l'l1D'ZII'C§!‘IEEl'.1‘ i1I'€lI'Z1l‘C-€3I‘!€.-I .I-2%:-2€!'l&I'Z==l'I_" _ I _ , , ” inf- I _L __ _ _ _J ETOWQI GUARLDIAIW , g _ LW 7 PAGE. EN __ - - - - - = :-: :-: - :-: :-: - '- :-: :~: =- -» :-' .~: :-: :-: :-° '_ _ 1::-:1= .r-_=- F03 ARN!E3§» fB_1§EEP_E1iS__ _AND _ .CWRDENERS ri Z" K 3': 5 i ==-;-. = 1'2";-' .. I-.--- Z'-~ .. 2': !'--- 55125512* ’.__.IE'.§‘.-'-CI=-"`lZ=.§I'C\’*". ZZ I-IE-§I°I“;22==Z!=’ '*`i?2°1?Z'. 55.' Nonis ‘ sranaloou \The second verse of our poem stamps the writer, as of iuoi: "sturdy democracy" which is said to holdtlties in contempt. ' ` For the life of me -I cannot see why a man who has done something in service of his fellows, should not be one whom the king delighicth to honor.” Unscrupu- lous party leaders aforetime have sold (or what amounted to that) titles of nobility in Britain: but such an outcry was raised that he would indeed be a bold man who should venture to repeat the act, and an inspection of the King's birthday list will show that every recipient is worthy of_ the honor conferred. BKUNKB INCREASING 'i I was greatly pleased with a let- ter which reached me a few days ago; my correspondent brings to- gether soine interesting facts in the' life history of the common skunk is reported to be on the Is- says: In your "notes" of last week you mention the fact that the skunt is reported to be on the Is- land, and I am sorry to say the re- port is only too true. From the vi- cinity of Summerside, where it is said they first escaped or were let out.of the ranches, they have spread to the eastward, all over Queen's County and even into King's County, in the last year or two. This animal is getting to be quite a scourge. on account of its fondness for eggs and chickens; a neighbor lost over one hundred chicks lest year-the won: of one skunk. ` “Being nocturnal in their habits skunks are seldom seen during the day. and may be in the vicinity quiic a while without being obser- ved. They .are fond of prowling round the shore and the eggs and young of our game and all ground nesting birds that they destroy, must run into very large numbers. “Unfortunately there is no boun- ty on them as yet: but if every man and boy would take a little time at this seasonc of the year, they could do a great deal to lessen the number of skunks, and thereby confer a benefit on the Province. "Bkunks, as a lot of folk may know, hibemate for a great part of the winter; but just at this sea- son come out'of their dens for a short time in the latc evenings, now and again, generally on a mild ` night. After returning from their ramble, they may not show out again for a few nights or even weeks. So now, boys, if you see “tracks in the fresh snow some Wh” ‘hm "° “’° °f ““‘“°" "°` moming-more that iooir some-I naming slaves. Rahounce all earthly names. fer- get our own, And~with the wind, the inch-worm and the waves, Praise one Name ever, and one Name alone? ' . -Henry Morton Robinson, in The Commonweal. _ \ _U That little poem is a good text for rl few remarks’ on nomenclature iuouili than is muon io be me iii opposition and something in con- Qur poet overlooks the ' that the "Great Original" fuel; first instituted names for all His creatures. ' "And out of the ground the LORD GOD formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; 'and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every creature. that was the name (Genesis 2:19). ` lo early does the sacred writer the importance of the as people dispersed over earth, the primitive names naturally became confused. .loet, or interohanged, and nt' were invented, until at last _a like in that or niiliei about. Science could make ie till this was remedied- the case of Botaru, it was Olfl Unne (better known to us al is) who cams to the rescue. gave to each plant an invari- generio and 'specific name. he elected should be in I.»e~ as a language universally UP" Bo convenient was this biaominai system that it was tural Eg; science. ment Dofhliil Astronomy. whmthe viaiistr have but one name, although the fined stan have two. c _ has not oe uiu pain agree with the poet. isnt! neoaseam but it “in-air' me “mi-aii" The-liife history of the (plant er animal) is the ob concentrate upon -only. leienee, be sure what your R: 0 ssl get -iii ‘what like cat‘s tracks, but smaller and closer together-you may know that they were made by a skunk. Follow them for a little and you are sure to come to a hole in the snow and there Mr. Bkunk has his sou. 1 wouldnt uivioo you to dig him out: I tried that once. "But get a piece of meat of any description-offal, chicken scrap or anything of that nature- put it near the hole and set a trap or ‘two and you are likely to get him. ‘A very good plan'is to get an old _ barrel, cut a few little holes in it, I and put the meat into it: this gets him going round the bane! as he smells the meat, and if you have set a few trails. WU may get more than one. It might be just as well to take a gun with you when you visit your traps. , "A young Dane tcld me the oth- er day that he had traps out for foxes and thought he’d caught a black one but could not see him very well under the bushes: he un- dertook to iiuiiii him with o. iiiok .but it turned out to be a skunk. "My, he strong," he said. _' "So for the next few weeks if we all keep our eyes open and spend a little time around the woods and the sea shore, I am sure we will be able to diminish the skunk pop- , ulation, and have a little fun be- sides." 1 My correspondent gives a "folly good wrinkle”-to set the skunlrs investigating the barrel and for- getting the trap. I have been told from other districts. that the skunk! are destroying the eggs of the shore birds. oppiiosioniinuiouoooi _ IEABONABLE HINTB BTOPB The last number of "Beaeonable Hints” (BPYIDI. , 1932) intimatcs that owing to restricted appropria- ,tioi-is, its publication wul be discon- tinued Ali farmers will ferret _E ,lg irggi Iéig ii il il 3 s 3' E lllhfll Editor of its last Replies To Questions BY, GEORGE ENNIS SMITH, BUPEEINTENDANT EXPERI- MENTAL FOX RANCH, SUM- - MEBSIDE Question: Can you please tell me how to get cross foxes? I bought a female which was bred from a sil- ver male and ii. red female. She is red. I crossed her to a black male and she raised six pups, three reds and three silvers. I bred two of the reds together, a brother and a sis- ter, and I had one silver and two reds, but no crosses. You cannot obtain what are known as cross foxes in the fur trade, but are known as patch foxes by fox breeders, by crossing red foxes and silver foxes. This female bred true according to the Mendelian law. The red is domin- ant and the silver recessive. There- fore, when you mate a red fox to a silver fox, whilst all the off- springs would be a cross between a red and silver, as the red is do- minant, the offsprings would look like red foxes: This was the case with the red female that you bought. While she looked like a red fox, she was actually a cross be- tween a red and a. silver. Accord- ing to the Mendelian law, if this red female was bred to a silver or a black male, on tho average the offsprings from such a mating would be fifty per cent. silvers and fifty per cent. cross reds. Of course, the cross reds would look like reds and would sell as reds. In your case it actually worked out according to probabilities and the six pups -that she produced were, as you state, three reds and three silvers. but all those reds were cross reds. According _to the Mendelian law, when two cross reds are bred together, on the average the oflsprings produced cross reds, and one pure red. In your case you state there was one silver and two reds. The silver would be a pure sliver and would always breed true, just as much as if it had been bred from pure sil- ,ver foxes for a number of genera- tions and would not throw buck tc the red no more than any other silver fox. The two reds probably may have been two cross reds or they may have been one cross red and one pure red. If you wish to breed cross foxes and by that I understand that you want patch foxes, then you will have to obtain these by crossing two different va- rieties of silvers. an Alaskan with a Prince Edward Island or Yukon with Prince Edward Island or _breeding from patch foxes. “ Question: I have a female fox that must have fleas, as she is scratching herself all the time and has scratched out the fur around her neck. She did not show any signs of having fleas until about two weeks after she had mated. I am afraid to do anything with her as it might cause her to lose her pups/What treatment would you advise? We would recommend you to leave this female entirely alone. It is very probable that she is not suffering in any way from flea in- festation. At this time of the year we have often observed in the Ex- perimental Fox Ranch that cer- tain foxes on particular diets will be scratching themseves a great deal and as in your case would re- move a large amount of the fur around the neck. We have exam- ined these femaies very carefully but we have not found any evi- dence of fleas. It should be remem- bered that at this time of the year the fur starts to loosen particu- larly f the foxes have been im- properly fed or with some partic- ular breeds of foxes. This is un- doubtedly premature as foxes should not lose their fur so early in the season, but it would cause a slight irritation and naturally the foxes would bc scratching themselves a great deal. It is very probable in your case that the fe- male has been scratching her- scif because the fur is starting to fall out and she is not infested with fleas so that there is no need for you to worry. ‘ ' Question: A fox breeder has ad- vised lne to put tincture of iodine on the tails of my pups when they are one week' old. I would like tc know what you think about this? Several years ago the Experi- mental Rx Ranch was faced with the problem of pups losing their the four recognised treatments for seed potatoes by Prof. R. . E. Hurst. Potatoes are under a cloud at present, but they are indispen- sablepthey must be planted, and iiiaoiily|oodv°1i_oytoti;eat the seed so that adequate ret\n'n may be had from the labor invested. Thiaartiole, Itake it.is an abridgsment of Pamphlet 134, new '|eries,wliichIhopetobtinapo~ sition shortly to review in more would be one pure silver, two' tips and part of‘their tails 'before they were one month old and there was a large number of fox breeders inquiring from the Experimental Fox Ranch what they should do to counteract this trouble. Since that time we have been able to find out the cause of the trouble and ascertained that it was due to infantile scurvy,,' but in the early days of our investigation work we did not have that knowledge, and in reviewing this problem there appears to be two possibilities, one that it was due to some external mite, the other that it was duc to poor circulation in the tail. It oc- curred to me that if it was either one or the other tincture of iodine might help to alleviaic the condi- tion. It would kill external para- sites, also it would help to promote the circulation of the extremities of the tail. The majority oi fox breeders are aware that in cases of sprains and bruises, very often the affected part is painted with tinc- ture of iodine ln order to stlmulcte the circulation. Therefore, we ad- vise fox breeders to put some tinc- ture of iodine on the tails of the pups the first time they were cx- amined. We had also tested it out in our experimental work. We found and so did the majority of fox breeders that followed our rc- commendations that it did improve the condition in the tails and there was no doubt that it saved the tips in a large number of cases. Since we have found out as a rc- sult of our research work, that fox pups were losing their tips and part of the tails due ic the fact that the diet produced infantile scurvy. One of the symptoms of scurvy is an impoverished circula- tion and when there' is not a pro- per circuluiion the extremities would bc thc first to suffer. With the fox pups, the tails would be the part. most affected. While the best way to counteract tail trouble with the pups is to feed the foxes so that thi-y will not acquire in- fantile sciii'\'_\', still it will help to paint thc tulls of the pups with tincture oi iodine. In reply to this question we would recommend fox breeders to paint the tails of their pups when they are about one week old with tincture of iodine and to repent the treatment each week until they are one month old and it would bc just as well at the some time to paint the paws. Question: What is the best time to wean pups? We would rccouiinend foxbreed- ers to wean their pups when they are scvcn wccks old. At that time the female begins to go dry and the pups can get very littic nour- ishment from the mother. When the pups start io run around, the mother will invariably give an alarm call when the,fcedcr or um' one else approaches the pens, and as ii natural instinct the pups rush to the nest and the longer thc pups are left with thc mother, the worse she becomes in this respect. Tile older the pups become the louder she givcs the alarin call and thc wllder the pups become. We have visited a large number of ranches where the pups have been left with the mothers. When any- one goes into the pens, thc pups will rush around, jump up the wire and then fall down. In those ran- ches there is a number of pups suffer with broken limbs or hurt- ing themselves in other ways. ‘Wild foxes are hard to manage in captivity and it is noi, ¢0ndu¢1ve to good results io iiavc your ranch filled with wild and cuyily alarmed foxes. In the Expeiuniciitai Fox Ranch we have inode ai practice of weaning the pups when they are six or seven weeks old and as a rc- suit the pups are very tame. There is still another aspect on this question. The mother, while she is left with the pups, will starve her- self for the sake of her offspring and it is very liublc to undermine her condition for thc ncxt breed- ing season. In roply to this ques- tion we would advise fox breeders to wean .their pups when they are seven weeks old, as thc pups will be tamcr and easier to manage and it will also give thc female abetier _chance to get into condition for the next breeding season. Question: How much meat should be fed to puppies from birth until six or seven months old? We would warn fox breeders against feeding meat by itself to young pups. Any meat that is fed should be ground and mixed with some vegetables and cereals. For that reason it is not advisable tc feed meat to the Vixen after the pups are three weeks old as in the majority of cases, she will carry it in to the pups which will lead in indigcstion and other ill effects with the pups. When the pups are one month old we would recom- mend that each pup should receive daily one ounce of ground meat; when they are two months old, three ounces, four months old, four ounces, five months old, five ounces and six months old, six punces, but not to increase the Continued on Page 14 I DATES 0'.-` SEEDING SUNFLOIV- ERS