such as deer, 'possum and 'coons; and the birds such as ducs,
grouse etc. We think we have scraped the bin for prospects a"u
after months at it have located three of the four men we want.
The fourth we have not yet found. Like enough he will have to
be specially trained at the University, and cast according to car
specifications. There has been such scant demand for such men
(specially schooled for game-management work as engineers and
surgeons are schooled) that there are as yet very few to pick
from. They will be coming up directly, I think, for the failures
and futilities of the barbershop biolociats have become too obvTiouso
and too punishing to tolerate much lonLger.
Almost daily same phase of this contrast is force unto us.
A prominent and sincere but non-technical State official
having read an editorial comment in bis newspaper, comes in to
inqxire with some heat "Just why haven't we been planting wild
rice in Wildfowl Bay? They tell me it's just about all gone, a
what t'ell will the ducks find when they come down this falln
Then again, as we mt do dozens of times every falls we
explain tat there never was much rice in that water . or in
Michigan. That in the places where we have some rice (as in
Houghton Lake) the red-wing blackbirds get or shell off most of
it before the ducks come downg that the change in waterlevels in
the Great Lakes has exposed and dried up the bulk of the fair-to-
good rice bottom in the Bay, that the analysis of stomach content
of ducks taken on this Bay, (and from all over the State) shows a
very considerable feeding on animal instead of vegetable materi'al
(such as insect larvae, anaile etc.) and so an investment in rico-
planting would not be practicable or desirable for the Bay,
especially f6r our Refuge area, where one of the objectives is to
protect ample seed-stock of muskrats...The rats being so fond of
the young rice that they may destroy new plantations...
But the commercial fishermen have another explanation as to
why the duck hunting on the Bay isn't better. Its the damned caspl
The carp muddy up 4he bottom and root out the rice and all the
other good duck foodal Git the damn carp outt When we inquire
what percentage of the total acreage of the Bay might be seined
for carp, and what percentage of the carp might be taken out by
seining and what damage to other and desirable fish might result
from intensive and large-scale carping, and so on, we are usually
growled at, or merely cursed.
The commercial fishermen over there have another peve. The
damn ternal They eat tons of good young fishi IWhyi seen 'am
with 5-inch perch myselfl Such damn nonsense ... State plantin's
of whitefish an' so on, and lettin' them damn terns eat 'Em right
out again - an' tons of other good fish ... But, we ask, do the
terna frequent the types of water where young whitefish biEg out?
And fut what do the terns mostly eat, for a fact? The Government
bulletIs seem pretty clear on that ... Oh, all right, we'll try
it again and on fresh instead of salt water. Might be a lot of
difference In their habits...
So we get an advanced student from the University flua.CuL2 and we
help him shoot hundreds of terns, through most of the tern season,
and pickle their innards and identify the fragments ... And he

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