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JACK MINER

ON CURRENT TOPICS

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JACK MINER Frank Scott Clark

Jack Miner
On Current Topics

By

JACK MINER

THE RYERSON PRESS
TORONTO

Copyright, Canada, 1929
by Jack Miner

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction -------- ix

The Unfinished Migratory Bird Treaty 1

Interfering with Nature ----- 33

Fishing on the Wrong Side of the Boat - - 42

The Canada Goose on Canada's Flag 46

The Canada Goose as Canada's Emblem - 48

Wild Geese - - - - - - - - 51

Deer and Wolves ------- 61

Educational Conservation ----- 73

Crows --------- 82

The Well- Meaning but Thoughtless Public - 99

v

Note — With one or two exceptions the photographs
used for the illustrations on the pages following were
taken by Dr. R. D. Sloane, of Leamington, Ont.

vi

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Jack Miner Himself (new portrait) - Frontispiece

Birds and Animals are Only Wild Because They

Have to be - - - - - - - - iv

View from the Miner Observation Tower - 2

Liberating a Honker ------ 3

Aluminum Leg Bands - - - - - - 4

"Uncle Jack" Making the Leg Bands 5

Ty Cobb and "Uncle Jack" with a Pair of

Honkers -------- 6

Releasing Two Newly-Tagged Geese 7

How the Birds are Fed - - - - - 8

Wild Geese in the Miner Trap 9

Something Frightened These Birds - - 11

"Uncle Jack" in Northern Ontario - - - 13

Wild Whistling Swans on Lake Erie - - - 16

Whistling Swans in Captivity - - - - 17

The Nest of a Canada Goose 20

A Close-Up of a Goose Nest - - - - - 21

Shelter in the Time of Storm - - - - 24

Wild Geese Will Stay in the North 26

A Bird's-Eye View from the Observation Tower 31

"Uncle Jack" and His Improved Roses - - 34

At " Uncle Jack's" Front Door 36

An " Improved" Common Mallow 39

In the Middle of the Miner Scotch Pine Forest 40

Safety for the Children ----- 43

vii

viii

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Wild Geese Headed for the Breeding Grounds 48

A Handful of Corn vs. a Thimbleful of Shot - 52

Wild Geese Rising from the North Ponds - - 53

The Goose Trap from Above ----- 56

A Catch in the Goose Trap - - - - - 57

One Corner of the Goose Trap - - - - 58

They're Thick, aren't They? - - - 59

Map Showing Migration of Different Periods - 60

" Uncle Jack" on a Hunting Trip in the North - 62

Field Glasses vs. a Gun ----- 64

Studying Tree Growth in Northern Canada 67

"Uncle Jack" Works with Flowers 75

Bird Houses Built by City Boys 79

The Rose Arbor at the Miner Home 80

A Corner of the Miner Crow Trap 86

The Crow Trap from the Side 87

These Crows will Eat No More Birds' Eggs 90

Plan of the Miner Crow Trap 96

Interested Folk Flock to the Miner Sanctuary 100

One Penalty of Becoming Famous - - - 101

Conventions Often Visited the Place - - - 102

Visitors' Cars Usurped the Roadway - - - 103

The Motorists Came in Droves - - - - 104

Visitors on the Baseball Field - - - - 105

Tragedy in the Tulip Bed - - - - - 106

A Familiar Scene in the Old Days - - - 108

Adequately Fenced, but No Unsightliness - - 109

Jack Miner Surrounds Himself with Natural

Beauty - - - - - - - - 110

INTRODUCTION

INCE the publication of Jack Miner's first book, "Jack

vJMiner and the Birds," in 1923, there has been an
enormous amount of interest in the work the noted Canadian
naturalist has been doing and in the experiments he has been
carrying on at his bird paradise at Kingsville, Ontario.
This interest has been increased by the exceedingly wide
sale of the first book in the United States as well as in
Canada, and also by "Uncle Jack's" lectures in hundreds
of centres all over the continent.

While Mr. Miner is naturally a busy man, working with
the birds in the migration periods of spring and fall, travel-
ling widely for his lectures, speaking at Chautauquas and
summer camps, he does find time once in a while to do some
writing in his own inimitable way. Some of this has been
worked out in magazine articles, some other items in letters
to newspapers, other bits of it in letters to personal friends,
and again in random notes on subjects he was interested in.
Of course, "Uncle Jack" has never been prolific in his
writing and when one knows the absolute downright
wholeheartedness with which he turns out one of these
magazine articles or letters, and how hard it is to bring
himself to do so, his literary product must be all the more
appreciated.

With a call from the general public for another book, it
seemed advisable to gather these articles and letters to-
gether, and they are in consequence offered in this book.
The title, "Jack Miner on Current Topics," describes them
aptly, since they are written around themes covering

IX

X

INTRODUCTION

matters in which almost every one of us is or should be
interested.

A feature of the first Miner book was the pictures taken
at the Miner home near Kingsville. The same feature per-
tains to this second volume, though the pictures in this are
mostly a stage further advanced than those in the previous
book and show the results of Jack Miner's work in the
several years intervening.

Just how some of the articles included in the content of
this book are appreciated may be judged from the letter
below regarding one of them, written to Jack Miner's son,
Manly, by Mr. Henry B. Joy, one of the best-known of
Detroit's motor magnates. As the letter will evidence,
Mr. Joy has been following in a humble way in Jack Miner's
footsteps. The pleasure he has gotten from the results is
surely very well worth while. — E.J.M.

Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.,

February 3rd, 1927.

Manly F. Miner, Esq.,
Kingsville, Ontario,
Canada.

My dear Manly:

I have your article by your father, Jack Miner, entitled
"The Unfinished Treaty." I never read anything with
greater interest!

I endorse every word he says and I sincerely hope and
trust that the basic principle of bird conservation which he
advocates may find a warm reception among all the people
of Canada and America. I hope ways may be found to get
that article into the hands of conservationists everywhere
and all others not now specially interested, because it will
make bird conservationists of them all!

If only the State and the county authorities everywhere
would adopt Jack Miner's suggestion for a small bird

INTRODUCTION

xi

conservation area in the middle of each county and larger
sanctuaries where they might he wisely located on a larger
scale, under state support, such sanctuaries could be
accomplished, as I have proof in my small way, near
Mount Clemens, on the shores of Lake St. Clair, and all
the people everywhere would be grateful for ever to Jack
Miner for his missionary work in the cause of bird con-
servation !

Nothing has ever given me more pleasure in my life than,
by following Jack Miner's advice, to find my little pondhole,
one hundred and fifty feet away from the front window of
my house, filled with fluttering wild geese and ducks coming
and going in the confidence of perfect safety.

With kindest regards and best wishes to all the Miners,
I remain,

Very sincerely yours,

HENRY B. JOY.

Jack Miner on Current Topics

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY
BIRD TREATY

POSSIBLY one of the greatest steps ever taken towards
the protection of the birds of North America was the
forming of the Migratory Bird Treaty between Miss Canada
and Uncle Sam. But, when that treaty permitted any pro-
vince or state a three and one-half months' open season, I
am sure all thinking conservationists will agree with me that
it is unfinished. Now, dear reader, I feel fully qualified and
justified to have a heart-to-heart talk with all classes on the
above important subject.

As I was born in the dear old State of Ohio, the very name
Ohio sounds sacred to me, for I dearly love the land of
my birth. At the age of thirteen I was brought over the
line and was liberated here in Canada where I chopped out
existence and have grown up with the country. In other
words, I was born in Ohio and made in Canada. Therefore,
every ounce of me and every breath I draw is North
American, and God forbid that I should say one word that
would cause even a thought of friction between the people
of these two countries that are so near and dear to my heart.
My only purpose of writing this article is to create a deeper
consideration among the shooters.

Now, without the vast breeding grounds of Canada for
our ducks and geese or without their winter home in the
Southern States, all thinking humanity knows these beauti-

1

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

ful birds would soon follow the passenger pigeon and become
extinct.

Therefore, it is compulsory that we must work heart
and hand together. But, don't let us use that word " com-
pulsory." Let us say, lovingly together. Yes, for God's
sake and for the sake of the rising and unborn generations,
let us work lovingly together. Now, do you know, dear
brother Yankee, that you have as many shooters as we have

A view from the Observation Tower at the Miner Home showing birds rising
from the North Ponds.

population? Have you ever stopped to consider the vast-
ness of the Dominion of Canada and that we have less than
nine million people? Do you know that the Province of
Ontario alone is more than eleven times larger than the
State of Ohio, with less than one-half the population?
Ontario borders New York State to the east, and, coming
west, it borders Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota, yet Ontario is only one out of our nine vast
provinces, saying nothing about the hundreds of thousands,

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

3

yes, 1 might say a million or more square miles of unsurveyed
territory still farther north. This fact will surely give you a
glimpse of the vastness of our breeding grounds for the water-
fowl that are forced to congregate by countless thousands
in your warmer states during the winter months.

Just recently one of my highly esteemed Yankee friends
and I were discussing this migratory bird question. When
I told him that, taking North America as a whole, wild geese

Liberating a Honker after it has been "Tagged." Note the corncobs
on the ground.

were fast decreasing, he looked me in the face and said,
"Jack, who has been talking to you along this line?"
Now, I don't know as I took it as a compliment, for it
sounded as though I had no knowledge of what I was saying
and wTas easily influenced. You will note that in the begin-
ning of this article I said I felt justified and qualified to
express my views. I feel justified because of my birthright
and qualified by personal knowledge and experience. It is
now nearly twenty years since I first started catching and

4 JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

tagging wild ducks, and I have hundreds of personal letters
written by the same hands that shot these ducks, giving me
full particulars as to when it all happened, and in the
majority of cases the tags are returned to me as positive
proof. By the way, just yesterday a duck tag was re-
turned from the North-west Territories, Canada, which
must be in the neighborhood of three thousand miles from
my home where it was tagged.

Since 1915 I have caught, tagged and liberated over
fifteen hundred wild geese and, as far as I know, I am the

Aluminum Leg Bands for "Tagging" the Birds.

only man on earth that is catching and tagging wild geese
for educational purposes. I have their tags returned from
many states to the south of me — as high as seventy-eight
from one state — and clear into the Arctic Circle to the north,
where they are killed by the Eskimos, who take the tags to
the Hudson Bay fur trading agents for an interpretation.
In addition to my post-office address, this agent notices
that I have also stamped a select verse of Scripture on the
tag and in several cases these agents have directed the
Eskimos to the missionaries for a further explanation.

Therefore, I don't hesitate to say that I have the most
accurate and the most fascinating bird tagging system of

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

5

any man or combination of men standing on our lovely
North American continent. Isn't this tagging system with
my full address better than just a number on a tag, especially
in the Arctic Circle? So you see, I don't have to refer to
almanac history to find out where our ducks and geese are
being killed.

In addition to the above facts, let me say I have been
privileged to cross our continent four times during the last

'-f * - "

>

"Uncle Jack" Making the Leg Bands.

three years, on one occasion going to Alaska, and the last
three Octobers have found me lecturing in our prairie
provinces, the greatest wheat field in America. During that
time I visited over one hundred cities, towns and villages,
often motoring over fifty miles a day across the prairies.
When travelling by rail, I always ride in observation coaches
and try to keep both eyes open, for, like Zaky of old, I
want to see for myself. And will you believe me, I didn't
see one thousand wild geese on these three trips, October,

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

1923, October, 1924, and October, 1925, and the most I
heard of any hunting party killing was fourteen. But
every place I lectured persons were asking. "What has
become of our wild geese that used to come here by the tens
of thousands? Where are they? Have they changed their
migrating route or what has happened to them?" I
answered them by saying, "Automatic guns and systematic
shooting is where they are migrating to."

Ty Cobb and Uncle Jack with a pair of newly-tagged honkers.

Why do I answer this way? Because of the number of
letters I receive enquiring for wild geese to use as decoys.
One letter reads: "Send us some good callers and price is
an after consideration." Other letters read: "So many
geese came into decoys and we killed them all. Among them
was this one with a tag on." Another letter reads: "We
killed thirty-seven this morning." Some of these letters
are accompanied by snapshots showing a car literally covered
with geese. Snapshots don't lie.

I also receive letters from persons living along the Missis-

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

7

sippi River, enquiring: "What has become of the sandhill
crane — a large bird that stood nearly five feet high? They
used to come here by the hundreds, but we don't see them
any more." Yes, what has become of the sandhill crane,
brother sportsmen of North America? Wake up, or in less
than twenty-five years the same question will be asked about
our wild geese.

Some time ago I received through the mail a booklet

There they go! The same wild geese just released.

entitled, "Federal Power and Duck Bag Limit Facts,"
A Study Bulletin, No. 6, issued by the National Association
of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City.
Now, I am proud to say that I am a member of this society,
yet I am disgustingly surprised to think that such a highly
respected association as our Audubon Society would issue a
bulletin that has a tone of upholding federal laws privileging
any individual to shoot over two thousand ducks and eight
hundred wild geese in one year.

The writer of this bulletin apparently wants us to believe

8

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

that it is based on careful study and broad views. I heartily
agree with the careful study part, but not the broad views.
For, on page three, the writer of the bulletin says: " Ducks
are not natives of any one state, but to the whole United
States." In reply to this selfish statement, let me say that
over eighty per cent, of the ducks and geese of North
America are hatched in Canada and are full grown and
ready to shoot before they leave here. Therefore, they are

Jack Miner spends $5,000 to $6,000 yearly in Feeding Birds. This shows
how the corn is distributed.

natives of Canada and the United States and belong to both
countries. Yet the writer of the bulletin only briefly
mentions Canada. That is on page eight, where he says:
" In Canada, however, killing has been restricted as much
as in the United States. The result, the number of fowls
have so increased since 1913 as to astonish the country."
That is another misleading and untrue statement, for ducks
and geese are not increasing in Canada, and the average
duck hunter of Ontario doesn't kill twenty-five ducks a

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

9

year, and not one out of five gets a wild goose. Now, in
reply to that statement that Canada has also restricted
killing, let me ask the Audubon Society this question:
Is a state or a province that permits each shooter a lawful
right to kill twenty-five ducks and eight wild geese a day for
one hundred days in a season restricting the killing?

Now I am convinced that a bag limit as a law is a failure,
as it seldom can be enforced. Its principle motive and

Wild Geese in the Miner Trap. These will be tagged and released.

advantages are to educate the people that slaughter is
unsportsmanlike, but what kind of education is this — a
lawful privilege for any individual to shoot twenty-five
hundred ducks and eight hundred geese in one season?
What will our children's children think when they search
our records and find that grandfather could lawfully
shoot six tons of ducks and geese in one year? I say to all
classes of humanity, a law like that is worse than no law at all.
Yes, we all know that no sportsman will kill that amount of

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

game in one year. Then, why in the name of common sense
do we leave that lawful privilege open to those who will?

In the following I reproduce from the Audubon booklet
referred to — " Federal Power and Duck Bag Limits"—
A Study — Bulletin No. 6 — sent out by National Associa-
tion of Audubon Societies at 1974 Broadway, New York
City, where they uphold such bag limits as you can see —
some states as high as twenty-five hundred ducks per man
per season, which I say is worse than no law at all. Why
make mention of limit when it is so high? This is what I
say is worse than no law at all; allowing a man to lawfully
kill 2,500 ducks per year. They belong to no one state; so
why shouldn't it be uniform?

State State

Bag Limits Bag Limits

State Seasonal State Seasonal

Alabama - - - - 1,950 Nevada ----- 735

Alaska ----- 2,120 New Hampshire - - - 1,840

Arizona ----- 2,160 New Jersey - 2,300

Arkansas - - - - - 1,950 New Mexico - 2,675

Arkansas County - - - 1,170 New York ----- 2,275

California ----- 800 Long Island - 2,300

Colorado - - - - - 2,675 North Carolina - 1,950

Connecticut 2,300 Currituck Sound - - - 1,300

Delaware - - - - - 1,840 North Dakota - - - - 990

Florida ----- 300 Ohio ------ 2,300

Georgia ----- 1,950 Oklahoma ----- 100

Idaho ----- 1,284 Oregon ----- 480

Illinois ----- 1,605 Pennsylvania 60

Indiana ----- 1,380 Rhode Island - 2,675

Iowa - 1,380 South Carolina - 1,950

Kansas ----- 1,380 South Dakota - 1,380

Kentucky ----- 2,300 Tennessee - - - - - 1,170

Louisiana ----- 300 Reelfoot Lake - - - - 1,560

Maine ----- 920 Texas (North Zone) - - - 2,700

Maryland ----- 1,950 Texas (South Zone) - - - 2,300

Susquehanna Flats - - - 975 Utah ------ 2,300

Massachusetts - 2,300 14 Counties ... - 2,675

Michigan ----- 765 Vermont ----- 1,840

Minnesota ----- 120 Virginia ----- 350

Mississippi ----- 1,560 Washington - - 320

Missouri - - - - 1,380 West Virginia - 1,000

Montana ----- 1,820 Wisconsin ----- 1,440

Nebraska ----- 2,300 Wyoming ----- 1,395

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

11

It is now thirty-eight years since our Ontario govern-
ment wisely prohibited the shooting of ducks in the spring
of the year, so you see the Migratory Bird Treaty wasn't
hard for us to adjust ourselves to, and to-day our bag limit
is twenty-five ducks per day for eight days, two hundred per
season, and right here, let me kindly ask, how can any man
be considerate of the other fellow's North American rights
and privileges and want to shoot more than two hundred

Something Frightened These Birds.

ducks per year? If in one state ducks are so scarce that the
game protective officials see fit to allow a shooter only one
hundred per season, why should a bordering state, where the
ducks congregate by the countless thousands for only the
winter months, allow their shooters a privilege of slaughter-
ing twenty- five hundred in the same period of time?

"Am I my brother's keeper?" How we all like to claim
the honor of being one hundred per cent. North American.
But remember, no man is entitled to this blessed heritage

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

unless he first considers and tries to practise the Golden
Rule.

Yes, we know that when these ducks are forced to pile
up for four months in their winter quarters they cannot be
estimated by thousands but by millions — millions of ducks
on thousands of acres. But, when they are scattered over
the northern states and Canada, it is hundred of ducks on
millions of square miles. Five hundred house flies in a
little six inch balloon fly-trap make it black with flies and,
if we are short-sighted enough, we will think flies are increas-
ing by leaps and bounds. But, liberate them in a big barn
and you will find them few and far between.

Another trigger-finger excuse advanced by the thought-
less shooter is that the southern marsh lands are drained
and the ducks' food supply is destroyed. Is it all true?
Forty-five years ago, I am absolutely sure, there were five
ducks migrating through Ontario where there is one to-day.
In other words, they have decreased eighty per cent, the
last half-century and at that time artificial feeding was not
even thought of. Is eighty per cent, of their original natural
feeding grounds destroyed? I cannot believe so. Who
hasn't been duck hunting the last ten years and seen thous-
ands of acres of green marsh with more guns than ducks?

I have had some of my friends write me and fully agree
that ducks have decreased fully eighty per cent, in the last
forty-five years, yet they go on to say ducks are not decreas-
ing. All I wish to kindly ask these friends is — if they agree
ducks have decreased eighty per cent, when did they de-
crease? I say they have gradually decreased as the hunters
and guns have increased.

Now, I am not complaining for the sake of doing so, nor
have I any personal motive in view. No one is paying me to
do so or even suggested or even knows I am writing this.

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

13

Moreover, there are no government strings attached to me.
But I want to cheerfully devote the balance of my life to
conservation, and I have some carefully thought-out and a
few tested-out plans of improvement to offer.

"Uncle Jack" in Northern Ontario on One of
His Annual Hunting Trips.

But before I go further, I want to apologize for my
lack of scholarship, for neglected red hair, freckles and the
fragrance of a young skunk catcher, and mother necessity
all combined their forces and kicked me out of school. The

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

result is I was educated for ditching, splitting rails and
market hunting, but through not being able to read until
after I was a gray-haired man, I was compelled to go to the
forest, field and marshes and let these so-called wild
creatures teach me their ways and it was they that melted
the heart that controlled my trigger ringer and caused me to
stop and think. And while I don't want the readers to
take me to be one of those old religious cranks that wouldn't
boil a tea kettle on Sunday, yet I do want you to know that
every one of His lovable promises I have been able to test
out I have found it to be true and, in connection with this
article, I want to quote the following three discoveries:

First. If man will take God at His word in harmony
with Him, that man can change the migrating route of the
fowls of the air. Second. Any bird that is intelligent
enough to fly one-half mile from humanity for self-preserva-
tion, will fly clear across the continent back and forth to
us for food and protection. Third. Civilization does not
necessarily prevent us from having them and they can be
taught to know our voice and will come down out of the
air when we call and, with a little patience on our part,
they will actually eat from our hands. "Let man have
dominion over all."

Knowing these facts, we must no longer treat these
birds as wild, but as migratory chickens, and let each county
establish a small Federal sanctuary of not less than twenty-
five nor more than one hundred acres near the centre of the
county. This should have a dog-proof fence around it and
no shooting allowed within a mile of this fence. I just
mention the above as an outline, but local conditions are,
after all, the determining factor and, if you have no local
conditions, do as I did — make them. Plant a forest border

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

IS

of evergreens from four to ten rods wide all around the out-
side. Now erect a small observation tower beside the public
highway, but just outside the sanctuary fence, where all
classes can go up with field glasses and kodak and enjoy the
sights. But remember, the public must be kept outside
of this fence. Now liberate a few pairs of wing-tipped
pinioned wild ducks and geese in there, and feed and protect
this haven of rest and watch results. In a few years you
will find your sanctuary a stopping place for thousands of
our migratory chickens, with many other species making
their home in the evergreens.

In seedling trees I planted twelve years ago, there were
at least three hundred occupied by mourning doves' nests at
one time last summer. The overflow of such sanctuaries
will spread all over the country and soon our bird life will
be more evenly distributed throughout the nation. Brother
shooter and bird lover, the plan is not a joke. It has been
tested out and the opportunity is pounding at the door of
every county. We can bring these honking V-shaped wav-
ing lines of birds down into our little lakes, rivers or even
in artificial mud holes and have them with us for at least
two months twice a year, or we can let them continue to
migrate over a mile high. This is left entirely with us.

Now, ten years ago our beautiful white whistling swans
were reduced to hundreds and were in danger of becoming
extinct. The result is that in ten years they are estimated
to be over twenty thousand and I have reason to believe
this estimate.

Four years ago I visited Niagara Falls and found it was
true that these swans were being caught in this death trap
by the hundreds. Niagara river for ten or fifteen miles
above the falls is the first open water in Lake Erie. Thus,
the swans went there first on their northern migration,

16

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

put their heads under their wings and went to sleep for the
night and gradually drifted into the swift water which
carried them over the falls where seventy-five per cent,
or more were killed and drowned in this one hundred and
sixty foot drop. The balance crawled up on the ice bridge
below, unable to rise straight up and there they awaited their
doom.

I got in conversation with Mr. William Hill, better known
as Red Hill, the river man. We sat down and discussed the

Wild Whistling Swans resting on Lake Erie, in front of the Miner Sanctuary.

situation. Finally he looked me in the face and said:
" There used to be quite a lot of wild geese get killed here,
but I haven't seen a wild goose around here since you
harbored them up at the west end of the lake." At this I
rose up and whacked him on the shoulder with my right hand
and said: 11 Red, you have told me something. If the wild
geese can be taken away from here, the swans can." And,
last April, Mr. Henry Ford and I stood on the north bank
of beautiful Lake Erie, just three miles south of my home,
and twenty-six miles south-east of Detroit, and there, about
one-half mile out was the sandbar, fully one mile in length,

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

17

literally covered with wild geese. A little closer in were
thousands upon thousands of canvas-back ducks and there
right near the shore, in the calmest of the water, by actual
count, were over three thousand of these beautiful white
angelic birds — our whistling swans. Some had their necks
curved and their heads lying on their backs resting, others
were tipping up, leaving their black feet out of the water.
They were feeding. Some were hovering and making love

A most unusual photograph. We know of no other Whistling Swans
in captivity. And these birds are happy.

to their sweethearts. Their cooing could be heard for
miles inland. Mr. Ford pushed his hand through his hair
and, turning to me, he said, "Jack, I never saw a more
beautiful sight in all my life."

Don't forget, brother bird lover and shooter, we are now
overlooking a hunting ground where I hunted for thirty
years of my blood-thirsty life and never shot a wild goose
or ever saw a swan on the water. The swans coming to
our country have multiplied the public interest in bird life

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

fully tenfold. The little town of Kingsville, with two
thousand population, boasts of having fifteen thousand
people there in one day to see the birds and, let me again
say, to any county bird society, the opportunity to duplicate
what I have described is rapping at your door. But now,
the latest report I get is — the swans are eating the duck
food in a southern state and we are going to shoot the
swans. How can such a report be true?

Now the first flag I ever knew was the Stars and Stripes
and I was taught to believe that each of those forty-eight
stars represented a state. Then, when I got to Canada,
I was told that our Dominion was larger than all of these
forty-eight states combined. Such being the case, we
have the equivalent of one hundred states or more in the
United States and Canada and these swans belong to all
of us and, just because they are eating a small portion of
the duck food in one small state, should the other ninety-
nine per cent, be deprived of seeing them alive? I say,
"No— No— No— let's feed them." Why do I say this?
Because of personal knowledge and experience.

A few years ago the elk in Wyoming were starving.
The Izaak Walton League of America, of which I am proud
to be a member, sounded the alarm and big-hearted Yankees
rallied to the cause and saved the situation. Now, if you
can give thousands of dollars to save the elk for a few
thousand people to go and shoot, surely to goodness you
can give a few hundred to save the various water-fowl
for millions of people to see alive and thousands of people
to shoot.

Oh, I would to God that all of us had more of that dear
old Abraham Lincoln spirit, when he stood up and said:
"I stand for what is best for the most people." As a
further illustration I refer you to my own twenty-five acre

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

19

mud hole experience where there is absolutely no natural
food at all. If one man, with no natural advantage and no
money (the biggest bank account I ever had was an over-
drawn one), can do what you are compelled to believe has
been done here, what might the organized effort of one
hundred and twenty-five million people accomplish. Dear
North American people, from sunny south to the North Pole,
this all depends on the desire of our hearts, for as soon as
I allowed my heart to love the birds, it stayed my bloody
hands. My trigger-finger relaxed. I soon had the birds
coming to me, but it was not until 1908 that I got the first
eleven wild geese to come down.

I started planting trees in 1910 and to-day I am one of
the richest men on earth because there isn't money enough
in the world to buy my home and compel me, in my sixties,
to leave this sacred spot and go somewhere else and re-
establish. In the spring of 1926 I fed over four thousand
bushels of corn to our migratory water-fowl that had been
educated to come to my home. I am thankful to say our
Canadian governments are helping me a little, and some
big-hearted Yankees give me good donations, which are
very acceptable. In fact, I wouldn't be able to carry on
this work to the extent I have had it not been for their help,
because it now costs me nearly $6,000 per year to feed the
birds which stop at the sanctuary on both spring and fall
migration trips. The balance of this expense is derived
from my lectures.

Now let me offer a few suggestions. Let us call and
call and call until every hunter and bird lover in America
is aroused and let us have the biggest international meeting
of sportsmen and bird lovers that ever got together on this
continent and let us get close together, so we can talk low
and avoid friction. Let us go prepared to talk kindly and

20

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

plainly and to listen to plain talk. Let us put on the soft
pedal and point out to the shooter that the fall of one bird
out of the air from his deadly aim can give pleasure to one
only, while thousands are deprived of seeing it alive and
that less than ten per cent, of the people of North America
want to shoot with a gun. The other ninety per cent, want
to see the birds alive. The ninety per cent, take nothing

A most unusual picture — the Nest of a Canada Goose. Note the goose on the
nest. Photo taken in Wainwright, Alberta, National Park.

from the shooter, but keep building up his opportunities.
On the other hand, we want the bird lover to be reasonable.
We cannot say that the ducks and geese are of any particular
value, only to see them lined up in the air and here and there
cheerfully honking and quacking and the mellow hovering
of their wings or as a table fowl and a cushion for our sleepy
heads.

Ducks and geese multiply very rapidly, and what

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY 21

reasonable man can be opposed to shooting a limited
number any more than taking the surplus of our domestic
fowl? Remember, the passenger pigeon became so ex-
tremely abundant that in 1878 they developed a contagious
disease and 99.9 per cent, of them disappeared in ten years
and have long since been extinct. The desire to go shooting
takes hundreds of thousands of men away from the grind

A Close-Up of the Same Nest.

of life, gives them an appetite to eat and a desire to sleep
and they wake up rested and are better husbands and
fathers in their homes. Such being a positive fact, what
reasonable man can oppose it? But we must curtail that
federal open season of three and one-half months and
either have a uniform smaller federal-controlled bag limit
or none at all. Yes, I said federal-controlled bag limit,
because the migratory birds are federal property since they
know neither state nor international boundary lines.

22

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

Therefore, federal property can only rightly and justly be
controlled by federal laws.

One of the complaints I have heard is that the ducks'
breeding-grounds are destroyed. Such nonsense! There
are breeding-grounds in America for many times the
number of ducks that we have. The only reasonable com-
plaint for us not having ten ducks where we now have one
is hinged on their winter quarters. We can overcome all
of this by feeding. In this way we can move them from
all polluted streams and stagnant lakes, which at the present
time are killing our ducks by the hundreds of thousands.
Feed them in marshes and lakes where the water is pure.
Any person that knows the letter A about birds knows this
is true. We feed to bring them to our guns; then why not
feed to protect them? Oh, but you sigh and say, what an
extravagant suggestion. But if our hearts are with the
game it isn't. Remember, good sensible bird protection
pays over two hundred per cent, dividends. We paid two
million dollars to see a prize fight. Scatter the price of
that half-hour's punishment over two years, with the
addition of the natural feeds we could grow, and see how
many ducks it will feed. Or, take one per cent, of our
automobile expense. We all know that, if necessary, we
could impose a gun license of one dollar. In fact, I am
sure, if put to a vote, fully seventy-five per cent, of the
sportsmen of America would vote for such a license.

Let me again say, the whole proposition rests upon the
desire of our hearts, and every thinking person in America
knows that the day is past for having something for nothing.
Remember, the birds know no boundary lines, so don't
let us conservationists know any in affording them food and
protection.

Now, just another word re the three and one-half months'

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

23

open season. I say, No, it is six months, as it starts in
Ontario, September 1st, and ends in the Southern States
six months later. Another point I want all to take into
consideration: Why do we want three and one-half months'
open season on the migratory birds in each country when we
only allow fifteen days on those that winter with us, such as
quail, pheasants and other non-migratory birds? It is
pure unadulterated selfishness; that is why. We are afraid
the other fellow is going to get them. We should all be
old enough to know that selfishness will not protect our
birds, reforest our waste lands, nor erect educational
buildings for the unborn generations. Selfishness will not
take us any place where we would care to stay. Surely
selfishness will not take us in the direction Jesus Christ
went.

I don't care what line we take up, its success and
enjoyment will depend upon the amount of real heart love,
enthusiasm and education we put into it. Yes, love and
education are the hope of the world. Bayonet-point
compulsion is a total failure and will leave a crimson wake
of revenge that will smolder for a century. And education
does not end with the human race. Every one of our so-
called wild creatures I have studied, from the chickadee to
the lordly moose with the five-foot spread of antlers, all
expose how they educate each other for self-preservation.
Wild geese have often been known to nest in trees where
foxes and prairie wolves are patrolling the ground. Crows
never wintered in Ontario, Canada, thirty years ago, but
as soon as the corn-binder came in and knocked off five
per cent, of the ears, these black, nest-robbing murderers
found, when they could get plenty of corn to live on, they
could stand the winter and they educated others to stay,
and now they winter here by hundreds of thousands, and I

24 JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

know that our wild geese can be educated to winter in every
state where the thermometer doesn't go over twenty below
zero.

In 1924 fully five hundred wintered here and they
would stay with me every winter only for being disturbed
by my catching them. Wintering them here and in the
northern states would relieve the south from having so
many to feed. Moreover, as I said before, it would dis-

HP

Shelter in the Time of Storm — Wild Geese on the Miner South Pond.

tribute them more evenly throughout the nation and, as
caring for them brings one so much more enjoyment than
shooting them does, it is easy to see how this plan works
out. For illustration, in 1922, I let Mr. Henry B. Joy, of
Detroit, have seven of my domesticated, hand-raised, wing-
tipped, wild goslings which I raised, and he started a
sanctuary on the north shore of Lake St. Clair, about
thirty-five miles, as the goose flies, north-east from my
home. He got geese coming the first year and last year

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

25

he fed over a thousand bushels of corn, and now he is so
enthused over his success he has added a fifty-thousand-
dollar addition to his Joy Ranch, as he calls it, and just
leave it to Henry whether the ducks, geese and swans that
visit this Lake St. Clair sanctuary will be fed, for he is able
and will feed all the birds in North America if they stop
there.

Mr. Joy is only one of the many I could name that have
visited here and have gone home, copied and improved on
my plan. There is Mr. Henry M. Wallace, of Detroit,
who came here about 1920 and to-day has one of the most
promising sanctuaries in the State of Michigan. Also
Mr. W. K. Kellogg, of Battle Creek.

Who reaps the benefit of such controllable sanctuaries?
As I have already stated, the sanctuary does not take
anything from the shooter, but constantly increases his
chances.

Now, if you will please allow me, I want to pour my
heart out to all Canadians. Remember, I am a Canadian
and, as I said before, my home isn't for sale at any price,
for I love the people of Canada, especially the Canadian-
born, and I love our fertile fields of the south, the rolling
hills and pathless woods of the north, the home of such a
variety and abundance of big game and fur-bearing animals,
and our thousands of deep, inland lakes, teeming with the
choicest of fish, and the sparkling streams where the
speckled beauties are leaping the rapids every day and,
as I have been privileged to camp out in our Northern
Canada on hunting trips for forty-one Falls in succession,
I feel qualified to say we are territory-poor but millionaires
in our outdoor privileges and future prospects.

But such a large percentage of Canadians, after visiting
my home and taking in the situation, look at me as if I

26

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

wasn't all there and very often remark: "Jack, you are
only feeding and protecting these birds for the Eskimos
and Yankees to shoot. " This statement has been repeated
so much I have got so it doesn't annoy me in the least, for
I feel it comes from the lack of knowledge and consideration.
Do you know, brother Canadian, the Eskimo is our Northern
Canadian? He was here long before you and I were
thought of and to-day we Canadians are sending thousands

Wild Geese will stay in the North through the Winter, if food is available.
This photo taken at the Miner North Ponds, January 1st, 1927.

of dollars to foreign fields to civilize, educate and assist the
needy, and I am in favor of it. But when I fatten a flock
of wild geese and harness them up with a gospel message
and let them go over the top for thousands of miles where
it's so cold, I am told, they have to use two thermometers
to register the weather and where the inhabitants have been
living in snow houses and exist on icicles and snowballs for
at least six or eight months in the year, I feel I have assisted
them in securing meat for the body and bread for the

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

27

soul and have upheld my slogan, "Do the Duty closest
to me."

Now, as for me feeding the birds for the Yankees to shoot,
just let me unroll this fact. Nearly seventy per cent, of the
money it costs me to feed these birds comes from the
United States; it does not come from those who want to
shoot the ducks. It is given me for lecturing in schools,
churches, before bird-protective societies and in good
donations. These Yankees are the biggest-hearted people
you ever mixed with and we Canadians have the best
neighbors of any country in the world. Oh, I would to
God that our Canadian, Sir George Foster, whom we are
all so proud of, for his activities in the Peace Conference,
could bring the members of the League of Nations to North
America and show them our four thousand miles of inter-
national boundary line that has stood the test for over a
century without a firecracker of defence on either side.
Surely our Atlantic-to-Pacific demonstration should con-
vince the world that "Peace on earth, good will toward
men," can control and that the blood-stained, devastated
battle-field, which turns mother's hair white with sadness,
droops her shoulders and breaks her loving heart, is abso-
lutely unnecessary.

Now just a word to you Yankees that often say to me,
"It is no use of us trying to protect the geese and ducks
while the Eskimos are robbing their nests and slaughtering
their young and molting birds and feeding them to their
dogs." I will admit that there must be Eskimos of this
kind, for there are undoubtedly outlaw Eskimos the same as
we have outlaws further south. But, I am sure, the great,
great majority are not that way. I am in constant com-
munication with the fur traders of that country, especially
the Hudson's Bay agents, and, while it is true I have more

28

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

goose tags returned from Hudson Bay than I have from
any two states in the Union, yet it must be understood
these Eskimos shoot to sustain life. Yet, I doubt very
much if the average twenty Eskimos, with their bows and
arrows, kill as many geese in a season as the bag limit
allows one man in some of our states and provinces.

The Rev. W. G. Walton, Anglican missionary, who has
been a missionary on the east side of Hudson Bay for
thirty-five years, has visited my home three times, and I
would that every man that complains about the Eskimos
could hear this reverend gentleman tell the story of the
starving conditions these natives often experience and how
he has actually known cases of cannibalism to take place.
And, right here, I want to reproduce the last letter received
from this reverend gentleman, which speaks for itself.
This territory he speaks of is the nesting-grounds of about
all the Canada geese which winter east of the Mississippi;
that has been proven by my tagging system. By the way,
I am sure it will interest the readers to know that the
geese that winter east of the Mississippi River never go
west of the Rocky Mountains. The same may be said of
the ducks, although they wander farther west than the
geese. Yet the farthest west I have ducks reported is
Montana and Alberta. The following is Rev. W. G.
Walton's last letter to me from Hudson Bay territory:

"My dear Jack:

"Yours of the 15th inst. has just reached me and in reply
re the census in the territory east of James and Hudson
Bay. We had 797 Eskimos and about 1,000 Indians
when I took the last census. Last winter about one-third
of the Belcher Island Eskimos died through sickness and
many along the coast from Great Whale River north and,
in the recent summer, when my last letters were being

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

29

written, some deaths among the Indians were taking place
through a cold that was laying the people up. Some thought
it might be the 'flu.'

" I took the census in 1911 and since that year there has
been a high death rate, for the people are sadly neglected
and the food is extremely scarce, hence why I have agitated
so strongly in Ottawa for the introduction of the domesti-
cated reindeer into that territory. It seems to me that in
a few years we shall have few, if any, Eskimos left alive,
for tuberculosis is playing havoc with the people, through
lack of suitable food, clothing, bedding and tents. Tents
are always used in the summer season, and now, through
lack of skin clothing, in winter, too. I must confess that
I am somewhat pessimistic with regard to the protection
of my people, the Eskimos, for little or nothing has been
done in an adequate way after my nine years' appealing.
Those who have seen the conditions and have any interest
in these helpless people realize the urgency of the need.
A trader with many years' experience wrote the government
that 'things were getting worse each month.' Yet nothing
that will adequately meet the situation is done. I am
not leaving a stone unturned in seeking to arouse public
interest in these people, but we lack concerted action.

"The Right Hon. Arthur Meighen in his appeal for those
people said, on June 26th, 1925, in the House of Commons:
T do not know any trust we have more sacred than seeing
to it that some means of keeping up the Eskimo race is
provided and that they are not simply allowed to die right
at our doorstep as mere dogs.'

"I certainly appreciate your kindly interest.

"With all good wishes, I remain,

"Yours most sincerely,

"W. G. Walton."

Now, just another word about the Eskimos, who know
nothing about a bird treaty between the United States and
Canada. How can it be that they are destroying our fowls,
when the swan population jumped from five hundred or

30

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

seven hundred to over twenty thousand the first ten years
they were given absolute protection by the bird treaty?

To you Yankees who are not well acquainted with the
Canadians let me introduce them. A real North American
Canadian is the same human being that you have in Ohio,
Michigan or Minnesota or any other state. He has neither
split feet nor antlers and if his body was built in proportion
with his heart he couldn't crawl in a box-car. Our accent
may differ a little from yours, the same as the accent of
people in one state differs from the accent of people in
another state.

While hunting and trapping in our far northern wilds,
fifteen or twenty-five miles from any human being, I have
often gone in an old deserted lumber camp or a trapper's
cabin and there, hanging from the highest peak of the
ceiling, is a wire that deer mice cannot get up or down.
This wire is holding a loaf or two of bread, out of reach of
animals, ready for a brother human being who might lose
his way and fall by the wayside hungry. You may find a
big telescope tin pail that contains a knife and fork, a
baking-pan and a few hard biscuits and enough flour to
sustain life for a week or so. I am only using these back-
woods rough-and-ready facts to illustrate to you the
principles of a real Canadian and, as to our conserving
ideas, I will give you this fact. Mourning doves nest in
southern Ontario by the thousands and are given absolute
protection on account of their vast value as weed seed
destroyers, yet there are several states which have an
open season on them.

Now, let me again repeat to you my plan. Let the
leaders of every conservation association in America get in
touch with each other and arrange a time and place for a
grand gathering. Then let each association take the

THE UNFINISHED MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY

31

responsibility of getting their members there, and I know
we can do things.

During the eight months these birds are gone from their
winter home, we can replant their natural feeding-grounds
and make them five times as productive. We can move
them one hundred miles in one year and take them to
pure lakes and marshes where we can have many vast
sanctuaries, financed and controlled by the federal govern-

A Bird's-eye View to the North from Jack Miner's Observation Tower. The
trees around the ponds serve as a windbreak for wild fowl and also as
a shelter and nesting-place for song and insectivorous birds.

ment, with plenty of game guardians to feed and protect
these birds. These to be the same as the county sanc-
tuaries only on a larger scale. But, you must remember
that there must be no shooting within the sanctuary nor
within one mile of its borders, for a sanctuary where birds
are fed and shooting is permitted even one day a week is
only a systematic slaughter house. What could I do here
on my sanctuary with a gun one hour a week?

We can amend that treaty by shortening that unreason-

32

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

able, long open season and providing for a small, federal
control bag limit that will give justice to all and favor none.
In fact, if we will work harmoniously together and take
God at His word, we can distribute these migratory fowl
over every county in America. As proof of this statement,
to-day we are having one of the worst blizzards I ever saw
in southern Canada and, during this Christmas holiday,
there were between two and three thousand wild geese
resting within gunshot of where I am sitting, and, as soon as
it fairs up, they will again be all over the county, and just
and right they should, for they belong to the people of
North America, just as much as the free air that we breathe
belongs to us all. But, if it was not for the established
home here, when they left Hudson Bay eight or ten weeks
ago, they would have gone right on over the top and piled
up with the rest in the southern states, where they would
stay till the last of February.

Yes, dear people of America, if we will only allow our
hearts to control, we can have wild life and have it more
abundantly, and everlasting life can start right here on
earth.

INTERFERING WITH NATURE

TN GLANCING over the many articles written on the
crow in our Canadian papers, I notice several writers fall
back to this old wornout argument, " interfering with the
balance of Nature." Now, dear readers, I would like a
full explanation of the meaning. Does it really mean that
no person should attempt to assist Nature? If that is what
you are trying to tell me, let me kindly say you are wrong,
for I have tested it out and know if man will take God at
His promise and work in harmony with Him that man
can even change the migrating route of the fowls of the air.

Now, remember, I only have an A B C, Sunday-school
education, but there are a few of His lovable promises I
have been privileged to test out, and I know they are true.
For illustration, I ask you to read Genesis 1: 21-26 and 28,
when He said, "Let man have dominion over all." Could
anything be written plainer? Last summer our Nettie
raised sixty bred-to-lay Plymouth Rocks. We killed and
ate twenty-two of the twenty-five roosters. The pullets
started laying in October. Now, if we had left the twenty-
five cockerels with the thirty-five pullets, would we have
had eggs all winter? Don't forget the fowls of the air are
all ours and they will come to us for our assistance and
protection.

Forty-eight years ago this spring, our family moved
here on the farm that was then all woods, but on our arrival
we were terrorized by the rattlesnake stories we heard
and, really, I was expecting to see snakes as large as clothes
props, that would strike at a distance of ten or fifteen
feet away, and then all would be over except a brief report

33

Dorothy Perkins Roses which "Uncle Jack" has
"improved" to this stage.

INTERFERING WITH NATURE

35

in the weekly town paper — "Those who knew him best,
loved him most," and so forth. Well, in a few months, I
got acquainted with those rattlers, but, believe me, they
were only a little larger than our largest garter snakes and
could only strike about a foot or eighteen inches. I have
killed as high as six on one Sunday. In fact, I would hunt
for hours to find a rattler, just to tease him and get him
striking a stick. But in a few short years the danger was
all over, for, where the snakes were, grew the fields of
waving wheat and corn, but, mind you, in order to do this,
we had to "interfere with Nature." Which was the best
for humanity — a rattlesnake jungle or a productive grain
field?

My esteemed friend, Mr. Thos. Baty, of London,
Ontario, kindly says: " If Jack ever had a pet crow, he never
would kill it." Really, this makes me laugh. Say, I
wonder if there is a man in America who has gathered up
more pets from the woods than I have. Crows, crows, why,
bless your life, I have had them by the dozens, and I will
admit they are just as cute as they are black. I once had
one that would say "Look out!" so plain and sharp that
he would cause you to flinch, but I never kept but one to
be over a year old. Then he, like all the rest, died guilty of
murder in the first degree.

In 1898 I enclosed four acres with a wire fence seven
feet high. There I raised English and ringneck pheasants
for profit. This pheasantry was right alongside of my brick
and drain-tile manufacturing plant. I could watch my
machinery and overlook the pheasantry all from the same
spot. In this way I made my hobby more than self-
sustaining and gathered stores of knowledge about the
enemies of our birds and, let me say to any young man,
breeding game birds for profit is a lovable occupation and

36

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

there is good money in it. The seven-foot fence is not
necessary. All that is required is a dog-proof fence. But,
remember, unless you educate yourself how to destroy their
y many enemies, you had better give up the job about two
weeks before you start, for this little, innocent-looking
weasel, that is no larger than a Northern Ontario chipmunk,
will kill from twenty to thirty of your baby pheasants in one
night and crawl through one-inch-mesh wire-netting to do

At "Uncle Jack's" Front Door.

it. But, remember, you are
of Nature" if you kill him.

interfering with the balance

1/

I believe the indoor naturalist calls him the mouse weasel
because the greater part of his food is mice. Crows must
be checked or they will steal every egg laid, unless your
brood pens are under netting. But, after the young
pheasants were hatched, I found the hawks and weasels^/
their worst enemy. Fifty rods due north of my engine-
room door is an elm tree, and morning after morning have

INTERFERING WITH NATURE

37

I seen a crow perched in the top watching my neighbor's
turkey hen come through the line fence just ninety rods
east of the tree. Mr. Crow would sit and watch and the
very minute the turkey came out of the fence row and
started back toward home, he would fly straight over and
get the egg she had laid. This could all be seen with my
field-glasses. Smart? I should say so. They are the
shrewdest thieves of the bird family. But you say to kill
one you are " interfering with the balance of Nature," for
God put them here. Yes, I say, God also put the bed bug
here, but He gave man dominion over them and the present
generation would hardly know one if they saw it. \/ %

Crows! God did not put them here to control our
poultry, nor our song, insectivorous and game birds. He
did not even allow them the privilege of controlling them-
selves. He left all of this for man to do. ease think
that over and look up what He says regarding this point.
And as for the grasshoppers the crows eat, this turkey hen's
family would condense all them into a Thanksgiving dinner
or into twenty-five or fifty cents a pound, just as you choose.

Now I am not contradicting a word which has been said
about the crows eating a few wire-worms and grubs and so
forth, but here is what I know about it. If he can find
them, he will rob at least one hundred of our more desirable
birds' nests in order to raise his family of four or five, while,
if any one of these murdered song and insectivorous birds
were left to mature, he would do twice as much good as a
crow ever did. x

Now, if a man wants to make money that man must
study money. The prospector is more apt to find earthly
gold than the astronomer. In other words, if a man con-
centrates on one line he is more apt to catch something on
that one hook.

38

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

My friend, Mr. Baty, says that if I had had a pet crow
to study the crows' habits, I would know more about them.
Let me reply to my friend and kindly say that when he has
studied them enough to catch them by the thousands,
he will know more about them. Personally, I have studied
birds more than I have my financial obligations and I am
glad of it. They have brought me closer to God and man.
If my life's study hasn't taught me something about the
habits of the crow, how did I catch five hundred and ten
of those organized murderers at one catch? Will you
please think that over? I do wish there was nothing but
good in the ways of all birds, for I don't want to kill any of
them; but how can I be humane and protect a baby
murderer?

In the spring of 1914, I drove to Point Pelee, a distance
of about fifteen miles, where my intimate friend, Mr.
Forest H. Conover, and I pulled three hundred and sixty
little red cedar seedlings out of the sand. There were none
of them over a foot in height. I brought them home and
planted them in the clay on May 15, 1914. I cultivated
them for five years and to-day fully ninety-five per cent,
of them are over twelve feet high and have been bearing
fruit for the last three or four years. Now, isn't that "inter-
fering with Nature?" This is where the five robins that
wintered here got their food and, oh say, this winter we
have had a cardinal added to the songsters and there hasn't
been a day but what he has sung for us and he has fairly set
me cardinal crazy — or wise — and is going to be the cause of
more of my "interfering with Nature," for I am going to
import some of these winter and summer singers. I am
going to put a pair in each cage. Then, in March, I will
let the male bird out, but will feed him on the outside of the
cage. Here he will stay, just flittering and singing among

INTERFERING WITH NATURE

39

the trees, but will not go far from his mate, who is still in
captivity. Then, after he has got well acquainted with the
whole outside proposition, I will let her out and in this
way I expect to have the whole place cardinal with song.

Dear readers, don't let me try it first. Jump in ahead
of me. It can be done. Yes, if you are privileged to live
in the country, you can make your home into a little
earthly heaven by "interfering with the balance of Nature, "

This is a Common Mallow, brought to Twice Its Usual Size.

as you call it, but, as I term it, "assisting Nature," for you
can get seedling trees from our government forestry depart-
ments, free of charge. If you will plant five hundred of
them in the proper place and formation around your home,
by cultivating them the same as you would hills of corn for
the first five summers, which will not take you over one day
a year, in ten years' time these trees will be from twelve
to fifteen feet high and will break the wind off your home
and, on a cold wintry day, will reduce your fuel bill and, if

40

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

you can be big enough to ignore the criticism of men and
take God's promise as a guide, your assistance will double
and treble the quantity and quality of the birds at your
home every year.

Scotch pines I planted on a sticky clay field in the spring
of 1914 have now grown into a lovely little forest, but the
lower limbs are bent by the weight of from three to five
thousand mourning doves that have roosted there during
August, September and October of the last few years.

In the Middle of the Scotch Pine Forest Planted from Seedlings
Just Ten Years Ago.

On this beautiful frosty morning, which father used to
call "the 17th of Ireland," I awoke before the stars had
closed their eyes and how could I go to sleep again and miss
such a musical feast, for that cardinal I had mentioned
apparently had his voice focused right on my open window,
saying in distinct tones: "Good cheer! Good cheer! Good
cheer!" This is mingled with the low notes of the song
sparrows and even the robins are trying to join in the
chorus. The lovable mourning doves, one of God's chief
mourners, in low voices, are saying: " Khoo-coo-coo ! "

In spite of all this, I will admit I was about to doze back
into dreamland again when, all at once, the honking of at

INTERFERING WITH NATURE

41

least a thousand wild geese seemed to echo from every spot
on the premises, saying: "Home again!" Really, my
thoughts drifted nearly one-half century back to the morn-
ing we left Ohio, when a dear old Yankee by the name of
Calvin Pease said to me: "Good-bye, Jackie." Then, as
he gripped father's hand, which I believe was for the last
time, he said: "John, do you think you can make a living
over in Canada for your big family?" Father apparently
gripped his hand tighter and he looked him square in the
face and replied: "Calvin, we are going to make more than
a living — we are going to make a life," but never did the
interpretation of this statement ring louder in my living-
room than it did this morning, March 17th.

FISHING ON THE WRONG SIDE
OF THE BOAT

TT HAS been proven that if a man writes an article
stating what he knows about crows, he will get lots of
people interested. I believe the same could be said if one
wrote his experience in raising calves or growing tobacco.
My father (the best man who ever lived) compelled me to
split rails to make a recreation ground for our pigs. But
now, let us banish all such insignificant side issues from
our minds for a while and think of earth's future hope —
our young manhood; those whom God created in His own
image after His own likeness and gave them dominion over
all these lower creatures.

Not so very long ago I noticed an article in the press
stating "that all ditches must be railed or filled in to
protect the motorist." This I am strongly in favor of,
but what about our country children on their w^ay to and
from the little red schoolhouse? Have they been con-
sidered at all? I am compelled to say "No." I don't
believe they have.

Just recently, my boy drove me to Windsor, a distance
of twenty-six miles, and I counted eighty-five school children
dodging their way to school along our cement highway
and, to me, it looked pitifully wicked. One little fellow
actually fell into the ditch in his effort to escape these
dodging gas-burners that came upon him from east and
west. To our people of Canada, let me frankly say, I
would sooner see a bunch of our children using the railroad
track for a school path than to see them on our automobile
highways where their rights have never been considered.

42

FISHING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BOAT 43

And, if we were fishing on the right side of the boat, I am
sure they would have first consideration, for what will
Canada profit if we gain the whole world and lose the

"Uncle Jack" built this walk beside the highway
in front of his home for the safety
of the children.

rising generation of our boyhood and girlhood? Yes, you
may be riding in your big limousine with your own darling
boy at the wheel when you meet or pass this self-neglected,
long-haired, bashful little fellow with his dinted, little

44

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

dinner pail in his hand and a bunch of handed-down books
under his arm. Yet, you have no proof that your boy
will be a greater asset to Canada than he will be. Remem-
ber, the biggest men this world ever knew were born
barefooted.

In speaking of Queen Victoria, my father once said to
me: "Jack, if you had known her, you are a man that
would have dearly loved her. God bless her." He said:
"I well remember the day she was crowned," and then he
went on to say that one day she was passing a bunch of
under-privileged children. She stopped and spoke to
them and some of the royalty chastised her for doing so,
but father said the dear soul wrung her hands as she replied:
"I like to speak to them all, for we don't know who the
coming men are."

Now please don't understand me to say that all country
school children are under-privileged. No, no, no! But I
do say that in building our get-me-there-quick highways
the safety of our school children has not been considered
and the paths they did have, in the majority of cases, have
been destroyed and no provision made for them whatever.
Personally, I don't like to hear a man complain unless he
has a carefully-thought-out plan of improvement and,
first of all, let us stop and consider the amount of material
it takes to build a highway from sixteen to twenty feet
wide and eight inches thick. Then let us consider the
insignificant amount of practically the same material it will
take to build a school-children's path two feet wide and four
inches thick, six feet or more from the rolling traffic, with a
nice piece of green sod separating the two. Please figure it
all out and ask yourself if this really is an extravagant
suggestion when five per cent, of the material used for the
twenty-foot road will build our little loved ones a path in

FISHING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BOAT

45

the safety zone. Again let me ask, have we become so
penny wise and pound foolish as to allow our hearts to he
completely crowded out and silly, speedy recreation scare
the foundation of our future hope into the gutter?

In closing, I have this request of my readers. If
through personal observance or experience you have reason
to believe that what I have outlined above is true and we
are fishing on the wrong side of the boat, will you please
help us cast our nets to the right by having a close-up,
heart-to-heart talk with your government representative?
If possible, take him for a drive where he can see for himself.
At the same time, let each of us do our bit, for "how can I
go up to my Father if the lad be not with me?"

THE CANADA GOOSE ON CANADA'S FLAG

TN REPLY to many requests as to my opinion of the
white-throated sparrow as our Canadian national bird,
I have said that the white-throat is a lovely bird, but not a
bit more so than the white-crown sparrow, bluebird or
some of the warblers, or yet the rose-breasted grosbeak.
My, what a beautiful, lovely, musical variety we have to
select from! And, I say, by all means let us have a Cana-
dian national bird, but let it be the Canada goose, the
noblest creature that ever lived on land, in the air, or on the
water — yes, and on the ice or snow he is perfectly at home.

I was born under the protection of the eagle's wing,
and I respect that great bird as much as it is necessary for
any man to, but our Canada goose is far superior. When
in captivity he will wash himself up and keep clean and
respectable, and, in about three years, with his mate,
will settle down to raise a family of from four to eight, as
all Canadians should. Wild geese pair off for life. I
never knew them to even make an application for divorce.
The male guards his mate on the nest. As soon as the
young hatch, he protects them from the opposite side of the
mother, keeping the babies between the parents. He will
leave his family for her and for her only, but he will die in
the front ranks for any of them.

I have placed their bushels of corn around one of my
mating pairs, and, of the thousands of hungry geese that
come here, none would interfere with these little plots to
even take one kernel.

When travelling in the air, the male Canada goose

46

THE CANADA GOOSE ON CANADA'S FLAG

47

leads the way, breaking the air for his sweetheart, who is
quartering behind him, and his family travels next to her.
In brief, he is one of the most self-sacrificing, godly-prin-
cipled leaders the human eye ever beheld, and to know him
is to love and admire him. There is not a human being
on earth so good but what personal acquaintance with our
noble Canada goose will give him a desire to live better.

THE CANADA GOOSE AS CANADA'S
EMBLEM

\ BOUT one year ago I was interviewed by many
reporters from our Canadian papers wanting a. state-
ment regarding our proposed national bird. After such
requests had been made to me repeatedly, I wrote to the
Canadian papers requesting that our already-established

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V-

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Wild Geese Headed for the Breeding Grounds in the North.

Canada goose be chosen as our national bird. I said, in
brief, he is one of the most self-sacrificing, Godly-principled
leaders the human eye ever beheld, to know him is to love
and admire him, and there is not a human being on earth
so good but that personal acquaintance with our noble
Canada goose will give him a desire to live better. And
now I come to you again and ask one and all to think for
yourselves, and if Canada is to have a national bird let us

48

THE CANADA GOOSE AS CANADA'S EMBLEM

49

revive the discussion. This lovely bird is already estab-
lished throughout this continent as the Canada goose.
Why hesitate to choose the noblest bird in the world as
the emblem of the best and most promising country in the
world? I want all fair-minded Canadians to read and
re-read a letter I received last week, but before doing so
I want all to know that, previous to receiving this letter,
I did not know this man was on earth, and, according to his
own hand writing, he doesn't know whether I am a man,
woman or child. I might also say that the bird he speaks
of was tagged last April, along with four hundred and fifty
others that I caught, tagged and liberated here at my home
to study their route of migration. The letter "S" denotes
spring and "27th" the year, all my fall tags being stamped
with a letter "F, " my name not being on tag, only my
post office address, which was "Write Box 48, Kingsville,
Ontario. "

The letter is as follows:

"Engelhard, North Carolina, U.S.A.,

"November 2nd, 1927.

"Dear Sir or Madam,

"At Kingsville, Ontario, Canada.

" I had the good fortune of meeting one of your neighbors
yesterday on the first day of the hunting season, and think
he was the most remarkable goose I have ever seen. A
flock of twenty-five or more geese lit to my decoys just out
of gunshot, of which he was the leader, and as the flock
started in he seemed to realize there was danger near my
decoy geese, and tried hard to keep them back. He swam
to and fro between the flock and the decoys, fighting at the
flock, trying to drive them away, and when they persisted
to come in he would fly off and circle around, hollering as
hard as he could, and, when he saw the flock was coming
in, anyway, in spite of warning, he came and lit between
them and the decoys, as much as to say, if it must be done,

50

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

take me and let these children go. He being the largest
goose in the flock, I took him first, the others got away,
and, after the excitement was over, I brought him in the
blind and saw his tag, and realized how nobly he laid down
his life for his friends, my conscience hurt me. My com-
panion and myself talked about the splendid traits of
character the goose had shown, and we imagined him some
pet that a little boy or girl had found and raised until he
was grown, and carried and put with other geese to choose
a mate and fly away to the safe, sunny South to spend the
winter. Many will go back, but this brave gander was the
first to fall, but in falling displayed such nobility as to
convince me of the sin of killing game just for the sport of
it, and if ever I go again it will be because I want a goose to
eat and not to shoot them down just to see them die. On
the tag, besides the address, was Ps. 37-3, 'Trust in the
Lord,' which is the first line of the third verse of the 37th
Psalm. '27,' I suppose, was the year. There was an 'S'
off to itself, and I imagine the gander was named Sam or
Sallie. My wife is putting dinner on the table now and I
can smell the baked goose, and the sweet potatoes, col-
lords, cranberry sauce with oyster dressing, so I am just now
consoling myself with that passage of Scripture when the
Lord said, 'Arise, Peter, slay and eat.' I really wish I could
have killed an untagged goose and let old Sam go back
home. I feel like you will look for him when the others
come north again. I wish you would write me, tell me
your name, and how you and old Sam became friends.

"Yours very truly,

11 (Signed) Billy Harris. "

WILD GEESE

A LTHOUGH I am a busy man, I feel it my duty to
answer an article entitled "Wild Geese, " written by Mr.
W. R. Tighe, of Manitoulin Island, and published in Rod
and Gun.

First, Mr. Tighe's letter:

"Editor, Rod and Gun:

"Having read Jack Miner's article in The Detroit Times,
regarding the decrease in numbers of wild geese, I am
taking the liberty to write you on the subject.

"Last fall, about the tenth of November, 1926, there
was a snow-storm on here. At that time the wild geese were
in flight South and they settled in the bay of our town, Gore
Bay, Manitoulin Island. There were acres and acres of
geese. People standing on the bluffs looked down on them
and old timers here said they had never seen the like in their
time. The fish tugs coming into port at dusk had to plough
through them, and the fishermen said there must have been
millions of geese. That same day, out in Gordon Town-
ship, the fields were covered writh them, also at Ice Lake.
The sky was black with their flight, which lasted nearly all
day, passing overhead nearly two miles wide. They also
flew over Gore Bay all night and kept citizens awake with
their honking.

"This does not look as if the wild geese are being shot
and getting scarce. If Mr. Miner had to tag all of these,
he would have some time.

"I can verify the above statements with the names of
prominent citizens of our town and farmers from the
surrounding country, and our farmers' boys, who went West
on the Harvesters' Excursion, tell me that they saw wild

51

52

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

geese last fall in Alberta and Saskatchewan by thousands
in the parts of the provinces where they were working, and
all over the West they were plentiful.

"Yours very truly,
" Gore Bay, Ont. W. R. Tighe. "

Now, it is true wild geese are decreasing in our Western
provinces, and ninety per cent, of the early settlers, whom
it has been my privilege to meet and who were there when

"A Handful of Corn instead of a Thimbleful of Shot" is the secret of this.

the geese were really plentiful, have asked me: "What has
become of the wild geese? They used to be here by the
countless thousands, but we do not see them any more."

From Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, where twenty-five
years ago geese were extremely abundant, the Park Com-
missioner of that progressive city wrote our government
and secured a permit for Jack Miner to catch and ship
them two pairs of wild geese for their park, and, although
I do not like this kind of transfer, yet under such circum-

WILD GEESE

53

stances I did give way, and did catch and express them
six wild geese.

Remember, I spent October, 1922, October, 1923, and
October, 1924, in these three prairie provinces, Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta. I visited over one hundred
towns and cities and did most of my travelling by daylight,
yet during that time I saw very few wild geese and, believe
me, I tried to keep both eyes open, and, let me sadly say,

Wild Geese rising from the North Ponds.

if any person tells you that in our prairie provinces wild
geese have decreased seventy-five per cent, during the last
twenty-five years, you can believe every word of it.

Just recently the following item appeared in one of our
local papers and I think it is worth reproducing:

"The four thousand sportsmen who made returns to the
Saskatchewan game-keeper's department last year secured
a total bag of 100,000 ducks, 26,000 prairie chickens, 6,000
ruffed grouse and 3,200 geese." Now, it will be noticed,

54

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

these hunters did not average one wild goose each. Does
that say geese are increasing?

Now, why were these geese so thick at Manitoulin
Island on November 10th, 1926? The story is quite a
lengthy one, but as interesting as a piece of fiction.

About thirty-five years ago, my chief out-of-doors
studies were, "Will a thirty-two-inch barrel bring 'em down
farther than a thirty?" "Will Nitro powder ever drive a
ball as accurately and as effectively as my old .45-70 black
powder rifle puts em?" About that time, my brother, Ted,
subscribed for The American Field, a sporting paper pub-
lished in Chicago. A few years later, some kind friend
mailed me a copy of the little sporting magazine known
as Rod and Gun in Canada, published at Woodstock,
Ontario. This little monthly magazine only contained ten
or twelve pages, and, while I could read but a very little,
yet the few pictures and so forth interested me. But
later years brought blessings with them and, about the
beginning of this century, I read a short article on our
decreasing game. "Would our children have anything to
shoot? '1/1 really thought it was intended for such men
as I, so in 1902 or 1903 I sounded the alarm in our town
and tried to organize a game protective association, but
made but very little progress, for the sneers and jeers
almost got my goat.

But, remember, I am of a determined make-up and
nothing knows this better than the game I pursued in my
younger days. Finally, the annual meeting time arrived
and I was cheerfully greeted by a bunch of real live, deter-
mined gentlemen, chiefly from Leamington, Walkerville
and Windsor, and in less than two hours the leadership of
this little existing association was in the hands of some
real live, educated gentlemen, whose hearts and souls were

WILD GEESE

55

all of one accord. The Essex County Game Protective
Association was thoroughly organized and, while our
association never has had a large membership, this little
bunch of us have worked harmoniously together. There
are usually about six from Leamington and the same from
Windsor and Walkerville and only one from Kingsville,
my own home town. There have been meetings where
we have had between thirty and forty, but I am speaking
of the average get-together bunch. For the last ten years
we have held our meetings in our community club-house
at my home. Yes, and I am sure God in heaven has been
present with us, for to-day we have absolute proof that this
little band of determined men, working heart, hand and
mind together, have actually changed the migrating route
of some of the fowls of the air and have caused the old
timers of Manitoulin Island to say they have never seen
the like in all their lives.

Now, how did all this come about? Why, about the
time this organization was first thought of, I started harbor-
ing the geese at my home and these men backed me up
with their brains, pen-points and influence. Finally, in
1910 or 1912, feed for these geese became a financial prob-
lem for me, so I went before our County Council and asked
if they would recommend that the government assist me
financially, and they passed an unanimous resolution
requesting that our Ontario Government give me a grant
of one hundred dollars per year to help feed these birds.
That is the last I heard of that, so that's that.

I kept on feeding the geese and the geese kept on coming,
but not till 1915 did any come in the fall. Then two
families came. But last winter there were fully five
thousand stayed until January 15th, and the snow was
over a foot deep, my corn pile sinking so fast that I quit

56

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

feeding, and the geese went further south, where they
evidently found bare ground. So you see I now have
them with me for two and one-half months in the spring
and as long as I will feed them in the fall and winter.
Fortunately for me, the influence of this little organization
I have already mentioned brought to my home Mr. J. B.
Harkin, Commissioner of Dominion Parks. As Mr. Harkin
stood before thousands and thousands of these dear old

The Goose Trap, from Above.

Canadian honkers, he apparently grasped the situation,
and since then the Dominion Government is assisting me
financially, as well as the Ontario Government. While
these small grants are cheerfully accepted, yet both com-
bined wouldn't pay twenty per cent, of the expense that
I have been put to the last six years alone, for we have
proven by my tagging system that we are now drawing
the wild geese to my home for food and protection from
all the southern states in United States east of the Missis-
sippi, as well as from the states which border the Mississippi.

WILD GEESE

57

I often put out one hundred and twenty-five bushels of
corn in an evening and it is all gone by ten o'clock the next
day.

It will be interesting for you to know that when we first
started feeding the geese in 1908, we carried the corn out in
our pockets; the next year we used a basket, then a bag.
Then we used bags and now we haul it out by the cart and
wagon load and scatter it with the scoop shovel.

A Catch in the Goose Trap, from the Side.

Since 1915 I have caught and tagged between 1,950 and
2,000 Canada geese. The three maps show where the
geese have been killed and the tags returned to me. The
hub of the maps show where the geese were tagged and
dots show where they were killed. The following day
or two after they were seen at Manitoulin Island, there
were four or five of this bunch that had my tag on killed
along the east side of Lake Huron, on a direct line between
Manitoulin Island and here, but they were soon piled up at
my home.

58

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

Now, to the far-off readers who are not familiar with the
map of Ontario, please let me say that Manitoulin is a
large island near the north shore of Lake Huron, on a direct
air line from my home to the nesting-grounds of these
geese that have been gradually educated to come and
spend at least one-third of their time with me, and on going
to and from their nesting-grounds they pass over it twice a
year, but mostly by night, as I have wired ahead of them

A Close-Up of One Corner of the Trap.

time and again and know that geese leaving here about
one-half hour before sun-down cross over near Cochrane,
Ontario, between six and eight a.m. This, of course, is on
their northern flight. Cochrane, I believe, is about two
hundred miles south of James Bay, which is the south arm
of Hudson Bay and two hundred miles north of Manitoulin
Island, and both are in a direct line, as my charts show,
between my home and James and Hudson Bay. Thus,
as Mr. Tighe says, it has caused the old timers to say they
never saw the like.

WILD GEESE

59

Now, Mr. Tighe, possibly my grey hairs of experience
will permit me to sound one kind word of warning to you
where in your article you say, "if Mr. Miner had to tag
all these geese he would have some time. " This, you know
in your own heart, is intended for a little slam. Please
let us not do this. Slamming will not protect our birds
or make Canada a more cheerful place to live, but, in
closing, I just wish to say that there is not a shadow of a

They're thick, aren't they? Wild Geese rising from the North Ponds.

doubt but what at least five hundred of these geese that you
saw or heard on November 10th, 1926, were carrying my
tag, and, if you could possibly arrange to come to my home
between next April 1st and 20th, any day except Sundays,
you and I could have a heart-to-heart visit and be glad we
met face to face in the presence of the fowls of the air that
introduced us. Here is for more game for the rising and
unborn generations!

DEER AND WOLVES

MONG the editorials in the Toronto Mail and Empire

of December 26th appeared the above words — ''Deer
and Wolves" — and, as I read and reread this most important
article, I couldn't help but wish that all the editors in
Ontario could be better posted on the destructiveness and
cold-blooded, murderous acts of these timber wolves.
Just to think that in Algoma District a doe wras seen
stumbling her way back and forth to a little stream and,
when put out of her misery by a bullet, she was found to
have one ham over half eaten away, and the shredded skin
showred the marks of a devilish timber wolf's sharp teeth!
This, of course, is an exceptional case, but it can be readily
understood by men that know the letter A about sheep-
dogs and wolves.

Now, who is chiefly to blame? I say, from personal
knowledge, we so-called sportsmen are to blame. We
meet in convention and the decreasing of the deer is being
discussed. The still hunter condemns the dogs. The
dog hunters claim it is the still hunters and the settlers,
the latter killing them in the summertime, and I stand up
and move that we recommend a buck law, so that only
those with antlers be allowed to be shot. This apparently
only increases the friction that is rapidly growing warmer,
until the chairman can hardly keep two or three from
talking at once, and, finally, we go home sorry we ever
went and wishing we could recall every sharp word we have
said. Meanwhile, the skulking timber wolf is gorging
himself on our wild mutton, then coiling up in the sun,
or under the drooping boughs of the second growth pines,
licking his chops and laughing at our calamity, \/^ ^\

61

62

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

Now, just a word about the nature of some of these
so-called wild animals. There is the moose, the caribou
and the snowshoe hare, all creatures of the solitude or
virgin forest, while the red deer, white-tailed deer, or
Virginia deer, which is one and the same animal, also the

Taken on " Uncle Jack's " Forty-Second Annual
Hunting Trip in Northern Ontario.

cotton-tail rabbit, follow up the pioneer's axe. Yet we
Ontario sportsmen, in our innocent ignorance, condemn
the settler for the scarcity of the deer when, right down in
our hearts, we know that where the country is partly
settled we get our best deer hunting. Why? Simply

DEER AND WOLVES

63

because the settlers keep the wolves in check and allow
the deer to multiply far faster than the settlers kill them

Just a word about the dogging of deer. We know there
are a few of us that love the music of the hounds, yet our
chief reason for taking the hound is to get the deer. Take
the wolves out of Ontario and allow the deer to multiply by
leaps and bounds, as they evidently would, and your dog
question is settled, for as soon as the hunter knows that he
can get his two or more deer, which could easily be allowed,

am opposed to dogging deer, but while ninety or ninety-
five per cent, of the deer that are born in Ontario are
being eaten up by wolves, I am in favor of allowing the
hunter to get his deer any way he can, and, as for my
suggesting the buck law, get the wolves out of the country
and this lawT will automatically enforce itself, for no hunter
is going to the woods and shoot a doe that has been nursing
a fawn all summer when deer are plentiful enough for him
to pick a three or four-year-old, fat, ten-point buck that
weighs over two hundred pounds. [ HA ' )

Let us turn the leaves back twenty-five years and take
a look at the old trail that is grown up with personal knowl-
edge. At that time, deer were very plentiful and as far
north as Bisco, which is about one hundred miles north-
west of Sudbury on C.P.R., there was a good sprinkling of
deer right through to Fort William. But any novice of a
hunter could get his two bucks as far north as Bisco. The
caribou, for some unaccountable reason, were fast dis-
appearing or moving farther north. At Stralak, which is
about fifty miles west of Sudbury, I saw seventy-five deer
the first two weeks of November, 1904. I saw twelve in
one day and never fired a shot because I did not see the

he is not going to be bothered

64 JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

buck I wanted. Five Kingsville tenderfoot hunters whom
I directed there killed ten bucks that averaged over two
hundred pounds each, but, in 1907, we saw the tracks of
wolves and, in 1910, fully eighty or ninety per cent, of

For the last ten or fifteen years "Uncle Jack"
has largely used field glasses rather
than a gun.

the deer were gone. In fact, we saw the remnants of more
dead deer than we saw live ones. There is a great per-
centage of people who claim wolves can only get the deer in
winter, when the snow is deep. This is absolutely wrong
for, as long as there is a live deer left where there are

DEER AND WOLVES

65

wolves, you will see deer hair in the wolf stools all summer.
This is only one of the many proofs of their dreaded ability
to kill our deer. Remember, deer are only wild sheep
and wolves are wild dogs and it is not because wolves are
so abundant/ but because each wolf is so murderously
destructives Let one sheep dog go unchecked in your
township and see how many sheep your council will have to
pay for. There is one thing you can best believe — you
will have more to pay for the first year than you will the
second. We all know it would be far pleasanter for our
government officials to report deer increasing, but they
frankly admit they are decreasing, for ten years ago our
two-dollar license permitted one to shoot two deer. Now,
we pay four dollars for the privilege of shooting one deer
— that is, providing you see this one to shoot. But please
charge your memory with this, especially when you have
your rifle in your hands, you are not supposed to shoot at
something you don't see.

Why have these wolves increased so the last twenty
years? To us backwoods men this is easier understood
than the alphabet. I can trace it back to January, 1905,
when I spent three or four weeks trapping with the Phillips
family, who lived on Pansy Island, which is about ten
miles north of Bisco. I arrived there on the evening of
January 6th, 1905, and Grandpa Phillips, who was then
sixty-three years of age, entertained me nearly the whole
evening telling how he had poisoned three big timber
wolves and found two of them and took them to Bisco,
and the thirty-dollar bounty, fifteen dollars each, and how
sure he was that he and I could find the other wolf. And
that was only part of the rejoicing, for furs were going up.
Mink were bringing as high as one dollar and fifty cents,
and Mrs. Harry Phillips and her two oldest daughters,

66

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

who were twelve and fourteen years old, had a short trap-
ping line out and came home with a beautiful fisher and
took it to Bisco and got five dollars and a half, which was
fully one-third more than they had ever got for a fisher.
Harry Phillips got as high as three dollars for foxes he got
while I was there. This, of course, was fully one-half more
than foxes had been selling for, and still Grandpa Phillips,
Harry and I would go fully fifteen miles to some of their
poisoned bait, anxiously looking for another fifteen or
thirty-dollar wolf bounty haul. At that time there were
eleven in the Phillips family and they killed all the deer they
required within one-half mile of their home.

What happened the next fifteen years? Furs continued
soaring. Think of it, fisher selling for as high as one
hundred and twenty-five dollars; mink, twenty dollars;
beaver, thirty to fifty dollars; muskrats, four dollars!
What is the result? These same fellows that were making
five to ten trips to their wolf bait in order to collect fifteen-
dollars bounty were getting five hundred dollars worth of
furs with less exertion, and the wolves multiplied and ate
the deer up alive. L/

I believe the Hon. E. C. Drury Government raised the
wolf bounty to twenty-five dollars, but what temptation
was that when the fact is one trapper could and did catch
as high as a thousand dollars worth of furs in one month
—(but not wolf furs). The beaver season opened in 1916
and our north country was overstockecf^vith them, for in
places they had become a nuisance. I could have taken
you to seventy-five occupied beaver houses in one day.
The above are all facts of the past twenty-five years. Since
the Drury administration, the bounty has been set back to
fifteen dollars, as it was in 1905 and other years. Now is
the time, I say, to start anew, for if we could pay fifteen

DEER AND WOLVES

67

dollars wolf bounty by charging a two-dollar license to shoot
two deer, surely we can pay a thirty-dollar or forty-dollar
or even fifty-dollar wolf bounty by charging the sportsmen
five dollars or seven dollars to shoot one deer. As the
editorial referred to says, "the hunters are good sports-

Studying Tree-Growth in Northern Canada.

they won't kick as long as they can get rid of the wolves/'
Now that the fur-bearing animals are gone, the trappers
will gladly turn to the wolves, if they are financiallv induced
to. 1/ ' Z

This last fall, 1927, I camped for three weeks on the

68

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

same ground where I have hunted for the last twenty years,
where fur-bearing animals were so extremely abundant,
and I did not see a sign of a living fur-bearing animal except
one muskrat and a few fox tracks. There are a few foxes
left, their pelts bringing the trapper more than he can get
for a wolf. The deer are practically gone. One trapper
told me he had not seen a deer for over a year. Please don't
say that Jack Miner killed them, for I have not killed a
deer since 1921 and I never expect to shoot another. I shot
my last moose in 1917. I want my grandchildren to see
five times as many deer in Ontario as I have seen and they
are going to by taking the wolves out. lX

What about the future, dear readers, especially the
hundred per cent. Canadians? Please give this most
important proposition every heart-beat of your attention
for at least five minutes and, above all, do your own personal
thinking. Right here in Ontario we have at least three
hundred thousand square miles of the best deer country ever
laid out-of-doors, practically lying idle because of the
timber wolf. Deer are only wild sheep. Exterminate the
wolf; then, for example, one pair of deer on each square
mile — how many deer will we few scattering hunters have to
select from in ten years? How many bucks would our
five-dollar or seven-dollar license permit us to kill? Again,
let us ask you to please do your own personal thinking and
figuring. I say this is not a fairy thought. It is not a
worthless dream. It is a suggestion that sooner or later
will bear fruit. The wolf will be controlled, and, although
he is the slyest, shyest, shrewdest, strongest-scented and
most cunning four-footed animal in North America, remem-
ber God_gam^ and the human brains of
Ontario are going to work harmoniously together and beat
the wolf to death. l/jOne point we will all agree on. That is

DEER AND WOLVES

69

the same glittering thing that has practically exterminated
our choice fur-bearing animals will treat the wolf in the
same manner, the glittering price. Jesse James was the
shrewdest outlaw the world ever knew, but the price got him.

Please let us take one more glimpse at our vast north
playground. We board our fastest west-bound train at
Ottawa and in less than two hours we are in the deer country
and we are going west and north-west two days and a night
before we reach the Lake of the Woods, and from my home
to Hudson Bay it must be eight hundred miles north, as the
goose flies. In the summer of 1922, I camped for two
weeks near Minaki Inn, Lake of the Woods, with one
hundred and twenty-five Winnipeg boys, and the second
morning we were there three boats set out fishing with
hooks and lines, and returned inside of two hours with so
many choice fish that the chief ycook gave orders not to

catch another fish for a week, i/1 travel quite a lot in the
United States, and I tell you Ontario Canadians the eyes
of eastern North America are turning towards our vast
summer playground and, if properly managed, we have a
Klondike ahead of us. I say, compel these pure-air seekers
to leave their fire at home, but let them come in and inhale
our climate. They are good people and we need their good
money to develop our unlimited resources. 1/vVhile thev
are doing a little fishing during the summer and seeing the
deer as plentiful as they could be, there is no limit to the
unresident license price they would pay for the privilege
of coming back in the fall and being sure of their one buck.
One thing we all know, their fifty-dollar non-resident
would pay more wolf bounty than our five-dollar or seven-
dollar. This, saying nothing of the hundreds of dollars
they will leave in our country when tjiey have a good

taste in their mouths to come back.

70

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

Now, with all due respect to our present leaders — they
are evidently doing the best they can alone; but, sportsmen
and all respectable citizens of Ontario, our leaders need our
support. When our game protective associations meet in
convention throughout Ontario and get back of them,
we can make them powerful enough to organize national
wolf bounty regulations. Why was our beloved, self-
sacrificing, Christian-spirited Sir Wilfrid Laurier such a
powerful leader for good. Not all in himself. No, no;
but because the best thinking people of Canada got behind
him and helped him carry his cross. How we love to refer
to our Sir John A. Macdonald, one of the best and most
powerful leaders Canada ever knew! How this wonderful
man, in spite of the sneers and jeers of the opposition,
connected Canada together so that Halifax can shake hands
with Vancouver in a few days instead of that many months.
But this was accomplished through the fact that the best
and most foresighted people in Canada stood firm behind
him with willing hands.

I now come to my closing point. To-day we are more
anxious than ever to keep our boys in Canada. This
appears to be our national problem and I say to fathers and
neighbors, in the name of God, take your boys on an
annual outing. Introduce them to our northern wilds
and the ways of the creatures that occupy it. Let your boy
take his fishing tackle and catch a few speckled beauties or
a few lake trout. Warn him to never get in a canoe until
he can swim at least a quarter of a mile. Let him take his
compass and learn to pick his way in and out of the big
woods while you follow with him. Teach him how to hunt
against the wind and when he approaches the tops of the
hills to stop and peep carefully over. And, before you can
realize it, this big boy will develop into a successful hunter

DEER AND WOLVES

71

and realize he is a millionaire in out-of-door privileges and
he will become a healthy and stronger man to face the
world through the fact that his enjoyment is out-of-doors
recreation. And that boy will stay in Canada.

In closing, let me quote the following poem, written by
my esteemed friend, Rev. E. C. Hunter, of Toronto:

WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS

You tell me you're a stranger

From lands that lie afar;
You ask me where the North begins

And what its boundaries are.

The North is not an area,

It's not a piece of land;
The North's a spirit and a life,

Which you must understand.

Up where the handclasp's stronger,

Far from the city dins,
Up where the smile lasts longer —

That's where the North begins.

Up where the sun shines brighter,

Where worries easily end,
Up where the snow lies whiter —

You're in the North, my friend.

Where every man's a fighter,

And no one quits the game;
Where the bond of friendship's tighter,

And honor's more than fame;

Where you feel the fresh wind blowing
From pine woods clean and pure;

Where you find the trout streams flowing,
You' re in the North, for sure.

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

Where fewer hearts are aching,

And fewer men walk broke,
Where the world's still in the making,

And all hearts carry hope;

Where fellows don't mind giving,
And we ask not creed or name;

Where the fun of life is living,
For life is worth the game.

Have you left the camp at daylight,
As dawn was breaking forth,

Carried back your deer at twilight?
Then you've really known the North.

Have you smelled the bacon frying
By streams where the big trout swims

Made friends without half-trying?
That's where the North begins.

For the North is not a country,

Measured by terms of land;
The real North is a spirit,

Which you must understand.

EDUCATIONAL CONSERVATION

OF ALL the home-run hits in the first innings I have
ever enjoyed was that made by Father Crowley, of
Algoma, and published in The Globe of March 17th, when
at the game conservation meeting this reverend gentleman
suggested an educational conservation campaign, and now
please allow my grey hairs of personal knowledge, observa-
tion and tested out experience to add a few lines to this
keynote suggestion — education.

The facts are that our game in Northern Ontario is in
the eleventh-hour stage, and fining a man for blood that
he has already spilt will not allow that animal to multiply,
but, rather, in many cases, it will make that man a worse
outlaw. For illustration: You are a settler in our un-
developed North, and you are doing a little trapping in
order to better clothe your family, and the law says you
must not take beaver or otter, but allows the Indian to
come for one hundred miles and tear the dams out and
destroy every one on your trapping ground. Would the
men that framed that law observe it? No!

Now, the reader will please pardon me if I am a little
partial to the settler. It is experienced poverty and need
that has molded my heart that way; therefore I don't
consider I am to blame. Fifty years ago this April, my
father moved his big family from Ohio here to Canada,
and all the money he took in the first summer we were here
was four dollars and a half ($4.50), for one hundred and
fifty bushels of wood ashes that we sold for three cents per
bushel. We gathered these ashes where we burnt the log-

73

74

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

piles to plant our corn. My brother, Ted, was seventeen
and I was thirteen, and I am absolutely certain that we
two older boys made more money with our traps and guns
to purchase warm clothing the first three years we were in
Canada than father and all of us got off the wet, newly-
chopped-out farm. Dear mother begged to go back to
Ohio, but we boys saved the situation, and to-day this dear
old homestead is not for sale or exchange for the rest of the
world.

Brother soon ceased market hunting, but I followed
it up every fall until I was twenty-one years of age and the
murder I committed in my uneducated, innocent ignorance
privileges me conscientiously to speak to the other fellow
who might also be standing in his own light. For illustra-
tion: There was a long- whiskered farmer who lived about
five miles from town. He owned fifty acres of land, and had
a rail fence all around it. He was just good enough a
farmer to allow the weeds and brush to grow about six
inches higher than his corn. This made a perfect winter
harbor for bob-white quail. This man would not allow
shooting on his premises. I went to him personally and
asked permission, but he stoutly refused. Now, he was an
enthusiastic politician, and when he went to town on
Saturday morning with a basket of eggs on his arm you
could best believe he was going to talk politics the rest of
the day, and would not return home until night. If there
was no snow on the ground, in less than an hour I would
be knocking his quail right and left, and would not leave a
track because I would wear moccasins. I was the only
market hunter in this township, and whose quail was I
shooting? Why, bless your life, when I gave the matter
a second thought in the right direction, I saw that I was
shooting my own brood stock for next year. In other

EDUCATIONAL CONSERVATION

75

words, in my bloodthirsty ignorance, I was closing an
account that gave me over two hundred per cent, dividends.

In July, 1925, I spent two weeks in Alaska and Northern
British Columbia. One evening I strolled into a butcher

"Uncle Jack" Works with Flowers as well as
with Birds.

shop where a man was selling the hind quarter of a young-
bull moose to the butcher. I inquired of this gentleman as
to where he got the moose. He stated that he went down to
the lake about twelve miles to mow wild hay, and near where

76

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

he was working he saw five moose feeding in a small lake.
He shot the young bull and let the two cows and calves go.
The next morning two motor boats, loaded with four native
hunters, started out to mow the rest of the hay, and at the
same time there were at least twenty-five guests at the
summer resort that would have given at least a dollar a
minute for five minutes of their lives to have seen these
moose alive. These "intelligent" men, standing in their
own light, killed the biggest living financial proposition
that ever rapped at their door of need. Moreover, they
could have gone to other shallow lakes and gathered lily-
pad roots to feed the moose, and in less than two weeks they
could have been taking in tens of dollars each every day,
and left the moose alive with their pictures scattered over
North America as an advertisement for this summer resort.
But they killed them and sold their hind quarters for five
cents a pound, and that opportunity is gone forever.

Now, I will admit, there are extreme cases of ignorance;
yet we are all stumbling along more or less. But what
is the remedy for such blindness? As I see it, there are three
hopes: education — first, second, and last. Remember,
education isn't all gathered with one's nose between book
covers. I think Pat worded it right when he said: "Get
all the education you can and then add the learning."

I want to admit I have no knowledge concerning fish
propagation, but only want to say: What other people are
doing we can improve on, for I am absolutely certain that
there is no state or province in America that surpasses
Ontario for game fish possibilities.

One Sunday morning when I was in Northern British
Columbia, I drifted over to an Indian camp. While there
I saw a man come along the shore in a canoe. I approached
and asked: "Have you been hunting?"

EDUCATIONAL CONSERVATION

77

"No, just fish," was the reply.
"Any luck?"

"Not much, just little," and as he stepped ashore he
took a two-bushel bag fully two- thirds filled with fish from
his canoe and poured them out on the green, green grass in
front of me. Reader, my eyes almost struck fire and my
heart leaped with the thrill, as this bag of beauties wriggled
and flopped there in the sun on that green sod. My first
words were: "Mister, I never saw fish like those before. "

"No," he replied, "I don't guess likely you ever did,
'cause dem is grayling trout." If my memory serves me
right, these fish were about fifteen inches long, and would
weigh about two pounds each, and they were as uniform as
silver dollars.

We may have grayling trout in Ontario, but I have
never seen one. Yet I firmly believe we can have them here
by the millions. Another interesting sight for me was
wThen I visited a game fish hatchery near Portland, Oregon.
Here a little river came spouting over the high rocks and
fell into a spray fully one hundred and fifty feet below,
where the river took another short tumble into a small lake.
This lake appeared to have hundreds upon hundreds of big
rainbow trout that were so tame they would actually follow
you. These, I understood, were their brood fish. Then I
was shown some large cement vats, about eight feet in
width and fully one hundred and fifty feet long. The water,
which was from three to five feet deep in these vats, auto-
matically came in at one end and out at the other, and I
know I am not exaggerating when I say there were tens of
millions of fingerling trout there, all ready for distribution
over the state. But what interested me most was that only
one man and his wife were required, apparently, in caring
for this wonderful success. This gentleman manager told

78

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

me that those baby trout, that were then about the size
of one's finger, grew to weigh two pounds and over in
two years.

Now there is one great mistake that fully ninety per
cent, of our people are making. They are looking upon
this conservation question as a sportsman's proposition
only, when the fact is it is the biggest undeveloped com-
mercial opportunity our vast and beautiful Ontario has to
offer us. Yes, conservation, as I see it, has got every
citizen of Ontario by the coat collar, holding on with both
hands, and looking us square in the face, begging us to help
ourselves.

In closing, let me make a suggestion that I trust all
readers will consider carefully. Let us all line up and hold
the biggest national educational conservation convention
that ever was held in North America, and let us hold it at
Sudbury, Ont., where it will be in easy reach of the trappers
and guides, or, in other words, close to the men who know;
and let every sportsman's organization in Canada be
represented, and let us hold this great convention between
the 15th and 30th of June. By holding such a convention
in late June we can have outdoor meetings. All of us that
have tents can take them with us, and, if necessary, camp
out in the suburbs in order to help out hotel accommodation.
Now, to one and all, if you think this suggestion worth while,
get behind it with your pen points at once. I am sure the
press will help us. Let us send a special invitation to
every member of Parliament. Now who will take the lead?
There are dozens and dozens of names I would like to
suggest, but for the present let us all be leaders.

(The following was written two weeks after the above
article appeared.)

Since making the statement that I stood for educational

EDUCATIONAL CONSERVATION

79

conservation, my mail has been flooded asking for a full
explanation, and, in brief, I will say, that during the last
fifteen years I have been lecturing, I have no doubt spoken
to a million or more school children in North America, where
I emphasize to them and encourage them to build a bird
house. If I can get a child to build a bird house he will
naturally erect it on a pole and that boy or girl at once
becomes a conservationist and, moreover, becomes a better
citizen, because of the love kindled in his heart, because he,

Bird houses built by boys of one city after a Jack Miner lecture.

himself, will not kill the bird that is going to build in a
house he made, nor will he allow any other person to destroy
any bird in his vicinity. This I call educational con-
servation. But we must not lose sight of the fact that we
have got to have laws, and strict laws, for experience and
personal observation has taught me to know that kindness
without firmness is a total failure and we must have qualified
game-wardens to enforce the laws, because there is a small
per cent., less than five per cent., who are outlaws, and this
small percentage can upset what has been accomplished by
the majority of people.

80

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

Too many citizens look at conservation as a sportsman's
proposition and only a pleasure or hunters' benefit, when the
fact of the matter is it is one of Ontario's biggest assets,
as between Sudbury and Fort William there are thousands
of square miles which have been stripped of its valuable
timber and at present is practically only good for its
mineral and big game hunting, as well as game fish fishing,
in the multitude of small fresh-water lakes and rivers.

Here's the Rose Arbor at the Miner Home.

No state in the United States or province in Canada has
such a vast sportsman's paradise and such opportunities
knocking at our door, if we will take the wolves out and let
the deer increase, not only by the actual money paid out for
licenses, but also by the money left in our country by
tourists and hunters who can be attracted to our vast
northerly playground to hunt and fish when deer are
allowed to increase and game fish are planted in our streams
and lakes which have all been fished out. Stop and think of

EDUCATIONAL CONSERVATION

81

the different places the tourist leaves money: railway fares,
gasoline for automobiles, hotel expenses, grocery expenses,
taxis, boat fares, rent of cottages, rent of boats. Best and
most encouraging of all is the money he leaves, or would
leave, with the guides and settlers, the license being a small
fee in comparison to above outlay of money spent in our
country. I still stand for raising the bounty on wrolves
and at the same time to raise the hunters' license enough to
pay the extra bounty paid and to get the wolves out of the
country, allow the deer to increase and thus bring more
tourists to our Ontario who will leave that much more
money in our Province and Dominion.

We all know that one hundred dollars brought in by
tourists has just as much purchasing power as if it were
for one hundred dollars' worth of wheat shipped out. Are
our fresh-water lakes worth more to us than if the country
they cover was a wheat field? Let's get together and
educate each other how to make it worth more than a
productive wheat field. I was told by one of Wisconsin's
government officials that their lakes in Wisconsin and
Minnesota were more valuable to their state, that they
brought in more money into the state, than that much
cleared agricultural land. We all know these states
border Ontario. Such being the case, what is the value of
our lakes when up to the present time they are free of
pollution. Think it over. Don't let us get together to
talk laws. Let us get together and do something.

CROWS

"TV 7TY REASON, dear reader, for writing this article is
simply to encourage you to take more interest in our
great out-of-doors and a closer study of the so-called wild
creatures that occupy it. Yes, and to ask you to study
them closer for yourself, since at the present day there are
so many indoor naturalists writing and misleading the
public. This is why I am asking all classes of humanity to
take a deeper interest. When you are driving, walking,
running or flying keep both eyes open so as to gain more
from personal observation, and when you see a crow pursued
and pecked by smaller birds stop and ask yourself why?
Why are these song and insectivorous birds putting in their
valuable time chasing a dirty, black crow? Surely they
don't want to eat him. Then, why are they chasing him?

Or you may see a killdeer or other species of bird flutter-
ing and hobbling out from right near you. Immediately
you are convinced that she is crippled in the back or her
wing is broken, since she keeps falling over herself every
time she attempts to get away. Of course, you are going
to catch her and see just what is wrong. But soon you find
you can get just so close and no closer and when you have run
yourself out of breath you will get discouraged and stop,
for you find the bird you are pursuing can fly fairly well and
is five times further from you than she was when you
started. Now please ask yourself why and go back where
you first saw her. But be careful where you put your feet
for you might step on her eggs or one of her babies. Keep
both eyes open and be convinced as to how these God-given
creatures, in the majority of cases, take advantage of color

82

CROWS

83

protection. For illustration: if it is a killdeer's nest,
see how she has gathered pebbles, shells, bits of wood or
fragments of anything the color of her eggs, and placed
them all around her nest. Remember this is the mother's
doings. And when you see a baby ruffled grouse (partridge)
not over three days' old, hide among leaves the color of itself,
what do you call this? Isimply call it God.

In the spring of 1879, which was the second year we
were in Canada, I put in every Sunday hunting for young
foxes, to keep them as pets. With axe in hand, I would
scour the woods for miles around and, when I heard some-
thing meowing and screaming, which sounded like an old
Tom-cat making his last screech, instead of running for home
to tell mother I was chased by a lynx or a wild-cat, I quietly
pursued this pitiful, squalling sound, taking good care to
mark the exact direction it took me. When about one
quarter of a mile away, the squalling usually ceased. Now,
I turned and, if the noise took me straight north, I went
straight back south from where I first heard it, keeping
both eyes open for hollow logs and so forth, and for remnants
of rabbits, ruffled grouse or turkey feathers. And in the
majority of cases I would soon be using the axe to chop
out the young foxes.

Some time ago I read a nine-page letter sent to me
from a gentleman explaining that "it was not the English
sparrow that was driving the barn and eave swallows out,
but that the systematic control of house flies by the human
race was robbing the swallows of their food and starving
them out." Really, it was a beautifully- written letter,
and, if one did not know better, he might be induced to
believe it. But the fact is, the English sparrow, or imported
flying rat, is the direct cause of the decrease of fully ninety-
five per cent, of our barn and eave swallows. I hadn't

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

seen an eave swallow in Ontario for twenty-five or thirty
years. In Alaska there are no English sparrows, but in
July, 1925, I counted forty-seven occupied eave swallows'
nests under the eaves of a building we stayed in while
there. In other words, they are there now, just the same
as they were here in eastern America fifty years ago, and
would be here now were it not for the devilish, dominating
ways of this imported, undesirable house sparrow, a dirty
bird that doesn't do as much good in a year as a swallow
will in a week. \y

Some years ago, I saw an article in a sporting paper
stating that canvas-back ducks and Canada geese migrated
at the rate of one hundred and twenty miles per hour.
One hundred and twenty miles per hour, or, in other words,
two miles per minute! Say, I am from Missouri; you have
got to show me! During the last ten years, I have been
privileged to give this question a fair test and, on several
occasions when the wild geese have left my home for
Hudson Bay, I have wired ahead of them. I wired to the
C.P.R. agents at Stralak, Ontario, and to the C.N.R.
agents at Cochrane, Ontario, and in every case I received
a reply. If these agents saw the same geese that left
here, these birds were making between forty and sixty
miles per hour. Another short but accurate test I have
been making recently is as follows: My oldest son lives two
miles south of me on a road running east and west, the same
as the one I live on. The wild geese that make their home
with me at least five months of the year all go out to Lake
Erie to roost, returning early the next morning. Lake Erie
is three miles south of my home. When I hear them
honking and see them towering high before leaving the
sanctuary, getting ready to cross over this three miles of
no-man's land, I get my son on the telephone. As I say,

CROWS

85

he is two miles south of me, between the lake and the
sanctuary. He holds the receiver with a watch in his
hand and just as a big, distinguishable flock crosses the road
at my house I call "Go!" He marks the exact time, goes
to the road and, of course, can see the geese coming. Here
are results of the last three tests: First, two and three-
quarter minutes. Second — with a nice breeze in their
favor, lifting them along — two minutes and eleven seconds.
Third, as they were facing quite a stiff breeze, four minutes.
Remember, these birds are from three to five hundred
feet high before they leave the sanctuary, therefore they
are not doing much climbing after they leave here.

Oh, but you sigh and say, "What has all of this to do
with crows?" Nothing at all. I have only unrolled these
experiments to encourage you to study for yourself.

The first hunting I did in Canada was crow hunting.
This was in May, 1878. We shot the crows because they
pulled up our corn and from boyhood up, whenever I
started to hunt any creature, I studied its habits. Soon I
found myself practising how to imitate the call of a baby
crow in distress, mingled with the hoot of a great horned
owl, the creature that was causing the young crow's trouble.
I would practise this quivering, cawing and hooting in the
early morning, when all was silent, and let the echo from
the forest speak for itself as to the perfection of the decep-
tion. Then I would conceal myself in the thick under-
growth of the woods, in easy range of a few dead tree-tops
for Mr. Crow to perch on. I would then start giving these
low, delicate caws of distress, just the same as I had heard
the young crows utter, now and then giving the low hoot
of the owl. Many, many of these black, old nest-robbers
have brought food or come to protect the wrong baby but,
to my surprise, they were not feeding their young on corn.

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

As I held these old birds up by the tail as they gasped their
last, they spewed up birds' eggs. I have seen as high as
seven unhatched robins pour out of the mouth or throat of
a dying crow, and the little bits of life were sometimes still
squirming.

Dear reader, the above is only a flash of the cruel,
wicked, murderous ways of these black, old nest-robbers. \/
Fortunately, in those days there were not many crows.

It Surely Works! One corner of Jack Miner's Crow Trap after it has

been sprung.

Really, I don't believe there were ten per cent, as many
then as there are to-day. We must not blame the crows for
their increase. This is man's fault. We have gone wrong.
We have combined our force with the crow's and pointed
all our attention at the game birds. Yes, and song birds,
too, and left these organized nest-robbers to multiply by
leaps and bounds.

Thirty years ago no crows wintered in Ontario, but
now they are with us the whole year around. In travelling

CROWS

87

from Windsor to Chatham, Ontario, a distance of less than
fifty miles, I firmly believe I have seen over one hundred
thousand crows in less than an hour. There is another
reason for them multiplying so rapidly the last twenty
years. Their worst natural enemy is practically gone — the
raven. Forty years ago, ravens were just about as numer-
ous in this country as crows. The raven is nothing but a
big, powerful, overgrown crow in his habits, only he doesn't

The Crow Trap from the Side.

migrate. He will search for a crow's nest and rob it of its
eggs and young, treating them just the same as the crows
treat our robins, mourning doves and dozens of other
species of lovely, desirable, song and insectivorous birds.
The raven1s~an inhabitant of the more dense woods, but
will scour the clearings for food and, up until the last few
years, they fairly thronged in northern Ontario and Quebec.

Between 1895 and 1905, the very height of my sporting
ambition was big game.' I usually carried four ordinary,
two-bushel, twine sacks and when I shot a moose I would

88

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

bag the meat up, carry it a few rods and cover it with
boughs to make it suspicious-looking to the wolves. Then,
I would shoulder the head and go to camp. When the party
of us would return the next day to carry out the meat,
I have often seen as high as a hundred ravens fly up from
around the running gear of one moose. But now, going
over the same ground, I haven't seen a single raven for
two or three years.

You see, the price of furs started soaring in 1904 and
kept right on going up, up, up. Think of it! Mink skins
which sold for one dollar each now sell for from fifteen to
twenty dollars. Fisher skins that sold for three and a half
dollars now bring one hundred. And a great many other
furs soared in proportion. The result is that in the last
fifteen years the woods have been overrun with trappers
and, although against the law, the majority of them used
quantities of strychnine and, just as soon as the ice will
carry a man about, every lake in our northern country
has poison bait or baits upon the ice. Some trappers will
shoot deer and moose for no other purpose than to make
poison bait of it. By injecting the poison into the meat
while warm, I understand, they make the most deadly
kind of bait. Putting bait on the lake gives the trapper
the great advantage of finding the fox, wolf, fisher, lynx,
or whatever animal takes the least bite of it. You might
say with so much poison in the woods why didn't this reduce
the number of wolves? The fact is that the wolves are
very shy, and it is only the few experienced trappers that
are able to get wolves to take poisoned bait.

In January, 1905, I was with a professional trapper.
On going to his bait on a lake, we saw that a raven had
taken a few pecks of the bait, had flown about fifty yards
and died. A fox had eaten part of the raven and lay

CROWS

89

stretched out within twenty feet of it. There was a fresh
fall of snow and, as the fox had come from the direction
we were going, I tracked him back for fully one half mile,
and I am absolutely certain he did not get any other bait in
that distance. Hence it is plain to see how the high price
of furs has all but exterminated the raven. lAn fact, the
crow's only enemies, now, are the fox, great horned owl
and red-tailed hawks, but these three combined aren't one,
two, three, with the raven. I have been asked by a great
many people "why didn't this poison kill all the wolves?"
In reply to this, let me say, the wolf is the shrewdest animal
to poison or trap on earth. J So many inexperienced people,
carelessly putting out this poison, caused the wolves to be
shy of any cold bait they saw, in fact, it is only experienced
trappers that know what that means. The most experi-
enced trapper gets them taking bait weeks before they
put any poison in it.

Before I go further, I want it distinctly understood that
I don't want to kill any bird. This killing desire has
apparently all left me.7 But how can I call myself humane
and stand and see these black, highway murderersof the
air continually robbing the more desirable "Birds of their
eggs and young, and hear the mother screaming and crying,
"Help, help, help!" How can I be humane and hold
myself when I know he is coming back to repeat this cold-
blooded, murderous deed. Moreover, I know that if one
of these insectivorous or song birds were left to mature,
it would do more good in ten minutes than a^dirty, old crow
would do in a day. Think of all the good the descendants
of this one insectivorous bird would do had it been allowed
to mature and raise young. Oh, but you sigh and say,
"Jack Miner, are you sure that you know what you are
writing about?" Yes, I am. I have tested it out.

90

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

In 1910, I started reforesting near my home, in fact,
nearly all around my home. I secured the majority of the
trees from the Ontario Forestry Department. The fifth
year I had one nesting pair of mourning doves and now the
doves nest and roost among these trees so thickly that they
are actually breaking the limbs down. During May, June
and July, I can take you to at least three hundred occupied
doves' nests in that many minutes, and, to-day, I would

" ■ ■ . '~"-f " ■ " " ' ■ ■ " ■ i

A Close-Up of One Corner of the Trap. These crows will eat no more

birds' eggs.

far sooner loan you my gun and permit you to go in there
and shoot one hundred pairs of doves than to allow one
pair of crows to nest there and murder and terrorize this
whole bird haven. I/Remember, here in southern Ontario
doves nest from four to five times a year. My intimate
friend, Mr. W. E. Saunders, of London, Ontario, located a
doves' nest here with young doves as large as sparrows on
April 19th. Fully ninety per cent, of them cease nesting
by September 1st. Why, bless your life, these doves have

CROWS

91

got so bold that last summer there were three pairs nesting
at one time on the piles of drain tile at our drain-tile factory
adjoining this little sanctuary. And remember, there were
from five to eight men working there all summer, piling out
and shipping away tile. But one-half mile north of here
is a ten-acre wood, equally as inviting for any desirable
bird to nest in, but there are no doves there, for the simple
reason that there is usually a crow's nest in that vicinity.
Remember, these doves are only one variety of desirable
birds that nest in here under our protection from the
crows, coopers and sharp-shinned hawks. Robins and cat-
birds are wise to this protected spot. Really, just isn't it
lovely to think, yes, to know, that these sweet, lovable
creatures are so ready and willing to come to us homely,
human beings for protection? Doesn't it take us face to face
with GocLs kind promise: "Let man have dominion over

A great deal has been said about the crows' diet, so let
me add my testimony. Crows will eat most anything.
Yes, and about everything. I have had enough pet crows
to find this out. But shelled corn will kill young crows
about as quick as any diet you can feed them. If you
have a young one and are anxious to raise him, feed custard
—one hen's egg to half a cup of milk (no sugar) — and just
watch him grow. I have fed them chopped up snakes and
they always cawed for more snake. Old crows will even
graze like a chicken. During the winter in this section of
the country, their chief diet is corn, but if they can find
carrion that is what will tickle their palates most.

As to the value of the crow, let me tell you this. A
crow will do no more good on the farm than a leghorn
chicken that will lay a dollar's worth of eggs a month.
And as for the grasshoppers the crow destroys, let me

92

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

advise you to keep a flock of turkeys and condense these
grasshoppers into fifty cents per pound.

And now to the sportsmen and bird lovers of the conti-
nent let me hand this boiled-down sentence: Don't expect
our desirable birds of Canada to increase until the crows
are decreased. L/Saying nothing about the game birds they
destroy by eating their eggs, I honestly believe, especially
in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, that, by eating
the duck eggs, the crows are the cause of decrease of ducks
more than the hunter and his gun.v/In Manitoba, crows
are so thick I saw them nesting on the telegraph wires.
This stark, naked fact is what caused me to study crows so
much the last five years. To reduce them by shooting
campaigns has been proven a failure. Thousands of men
are trying that and, in spite of their many varieties of
decoys, the crows are increasing. Here is where my life's
study of them helped me out, for I know how shy and cute
a little shooting will make them. At last the idea of
catching them presented itself to me, and immediately I
could see results. More study increased my faith until I
simply had to try it out.

Since I knew I would have to have bait, I at once called
up Mr. Art Brown, one of our Kingsville fishermen, and he
agreed to let me have a truck load or so of fish heads, scales
and entrails, providing I got them off the dock before the
health officers put him off. Next, I secured a dead horse
or so and was about all set for crow bait. Then I built the
net on the same principle as I had built my net to catch
and tag geese, but much smaller, the exact dimensions being
six feet high, twelve feet wide and seventy feet long. I
started building the net on a Thursday and finished it
Saturday, doing practically all the work myself. And on
the following Tuesday I caught 510 crows at one catch.

CROWS

93

While there may be dozens of other ways to control crows,
yet I do know this method, if put into practise, would soon
reduce their numbers to the same proportion as they were
fifty years ago.

About the only fault I have heard about my crow net is
that it is altogether too expensive. This surely must be a
Scotch complaint, for I know two young men that built a
crow net last winter and caught as high as 237 at one
catch, and the net only cost them seven dollars. Of course,
this one was built of junk material, such as poles from the
woods and old fish netting, but it caught the crows just the
same. To build a neat net as large as mine, and to use new
one-inch gas pipe as frame, and new two-inch mesh netting,
would cost from seventy-five to a hundred dollars. But it
is not necessary to build the net as long as mine. A net
twenty-five feet long, instead of seventy feet, would soon
catch some crows.

The big thing to make the net successful is the attention
given to it. That is, keeping it well baited. We bait for
two or three days outside of the net and then, when we have
a thousand or two crows coming, we draw the bait under
the net. Of course, we never allow any shooting near the
net, as that will frighten the birds, and we don't even go
near the net or allow any one near it except toward evening,
when the crows have gone to roost, at which time we take the
bait out. I understand indirectly that some parties have
built nets but had little success, which I think was largely
caused by failure to bait the crows enough outside of the
net to get them coming before the bait was moved under the
net. Again, I have made all my big catches mostly during
the winter, when snow was on the ground, and all the odd
ears of corn in the open fields were covered with snow, and
thus the crows went any place for feed. During the last

94

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

three winters we have caught thousands of them in this one
net and have made as high as two catches in one day.
But this happens very seldom, because after they get a fright
it takes the ones that are not caught two or three days to
get over it. So, usually, after we make a catch, we bait
well around outside the net for two or three days.

Any one wanting plans or specifications is welcome to
come and see our net and to duplicate it. And, really, if
you want our more desirable birds to increase, the crows
must be reduced. \/

An appointment to see the crow trap or even help catch
crows here at our sanctuary during January and February
may be made by writing.

THE JACK MINER CROW TRAP

Editor s Note — A few months ago, after the publication
of so many letters in the papers and two or three articles
from Jack Miner on the so-called "crow controversy,"
there was a demand from various quarters for detail regard-
ing the Miner crow trap. At that time Mr. Miner handed
plans and specifications to the United States government,
by whom they were placed in the hands of the Biological
Survey /\/This organization drew plans and prepared con-
densed specifications. These it seemed worth while incor-
porating here as below:

In preparing the drawing of the crow trap developed by Jack
Miner, of Kingsville, Ont., the Biological Survey has made a few
slight modifications that in no way affect the mechanical features, but
which it is believed will simplify its construction and possibly reduce
the cost. The dimensions conform closely to the original trap, which
had a total length of 73 to 75 feet, a height of 6 feet, a bottom width
of 20 feet, and a top width of 12 feet.

Materials — The materials used in the construction of a trap of
this size are 14 heavy posts (about 8 feet long and 6 or 8 inches in dia-
meter); 2 posts about the same size but about 11 feet long; 2 smaller

C ROWS

95

posts, about 11 feet long; 412 feet of l^-inch iron pipe with elbows
and T-joints; 12 posts about 2x2 inches and IY2 feet long; 340 feet of
2-inch-mesh galvanized poultry wire, 6 feet wide; 150 feet of 2-inch-
mesh galvanized poultry wire, 1 foot wide; 10 pieces of quarter-inch
flat iron, about 1 inch wide and 18 inches long; 10 pieces of quarter-
inch flat iron, 1 inch wide and 10 inches long; 10 pieces of half-inch
iron rod, about 3 inches long; 12 flat or strap hinges, about 2 inches
wide; about 300 feet of heavy galvanized iron wire; a quantity of old
lumber to complete the framework of the trap; and the necessary tools
for pipe fitting, forging, and carpentry.

Construction — After the site has been selected, the 14 heavy
posts are set in the ground in two parallel lines 12 feet apart, so as to
inclose a rectangle about 75 feet long and 12 feet wide. The posts
can best be set by the use of a regular post-hole digger and should
project 6 feet above ground. The opposite posts in the two lines are
then joined together by heavy timbers (12" x 6" were used by Mr.
Miner), and cross bracing added where necessary. Note — The ends of
these timbers should not extend entirely across the tops of the posts,
but should leave a space about 3 inches, which will be necessary in
attaching the doors.

Two pieces of 6-foot wire netting will be used to cover the top.
The details of the ends are best left until the doors are in place.

Doors — The doors are merely frames, made from l^-inch iron
pipe, 206 feet being required for each door, which measures 75 feet by
7 feet. Six pieces of pipe are used as cross braces, parallel to the
ends. Joints should be made with the usual T, or (at the corners)
elbow joints. Having completed the frames, a piece of netting 6 feet
long and 1 foot wide are used to cover them, the netting being laced
together and to the frame as tightly as possible. The doors may
now be set up against the posts, to which they are hinged by the
simple expedient of heavy spikes driven into the tops of the posts
and bent over the upper pipe of the frame.

With the doors in place, the ends may be completed on board
frames nailed to the end posts. They also should be covered with
wire netting, and a door should be provided to admit the operator.

Triggers — By pulling each door out and up until horizontal, the
place for the line of the triggers can be determined. On each of these
lines five blocks are placed at equal distance apart. (Short sections
of 4 x 4 timbers set in the ground will do.) These should be set so
as to project an inch or two above the ground. To these the triggers
are hinged. The triggers are 2x2 inch posts, 7J^ feet long — (2 x 4
timbers, ripped longitudinally, will make satisfactory triggers), to the
top of which are bolted pieces of quarter-inch flat iron, about 18 inches
long. These irons must be drilled for screws or bolts before they can
be attached and there also should be a quarter-inch hole near one end ;

CROWS

<)7

the opposite end is forged to a piece of half-inch iron rod so that
the latter will project as pins at a right angle about 2 inches. Great
strain will come on this iron work, so the pins must be firm. In attach-
ing the irons to the posts, the perforated end should extend several
inches beyond the wood and when held vertically the half-inch iron
pins should be approximately at the height of the doors when open ;
i.e., 6 feet from the ground. The triggers are secured to the ground
blocks by strap hinges placed on the side toward the blind of the
operator.

At the end of the lines of triggers and about 4 feet beyond, posts
are set firmly in the ground. The end posts need not be large, but the
trigger posts, which carry the operating levers, should be 6 or 8 inches
in diameter. Also the end posts need be only a few inches higher than
the triggers, but the trigger posts should be 2 or 3 feet higher. At the
height of the tops of the triggers a hole is bored through the trigger
posts and through each is passed a piece of heavy wire, which connects
the triggers by means of the holes in the iron work, where a loop is
made, and is finally fastened to the end post. Each wire should be
taut from the trigger post to the last trigger, but should have a few
inches of slack between the last trigger and the end post. This is to
prevent the triggers falling too far forward.

On each trigger post a trip lever (of the same material as the
triggers) is attached by hinges across the tops. These levers should
extend within about a foot of the ground, and to each is attached the
ends of the trigger wire that passes through the trigger post. To
prevent the levers from being pulled too far, wire safety collars are
attached to the trigger posts a few inches above the lower ends of the
levers. These should allow the lower ends of the levers to move about
2 feet. The pull wires are attached to the lower ends of the two
levers, and after extending about 50 feet they may be joined together
and continued to the blind as a single wire.

Trigger Hooks — At points on the door frames corresponding to
the position of the triggers, the trigger hooks are attached. These are
made from pieces of quarter-inch flat iron about 1 inch wide, which
are forged so that one end may be curled tightly around the pipe of
the door frame while the other end is formed into a hook that will rest
over the pins on the triggers.

Operation — As will be obvious from their size, the doors are very
heavy and will likely require the services of three men to set. The
doors are pulled out and up to the horizontal position and the triggers
moved so that the hooks on the door frames rest over the trigger pins.
It is well to attach the blind end of the pull wire to a short stick (such
as a section of broomstick), so that it may be better grasped with both
hands. A sharp jerk on this will pull the trip levers from 1 to 2 feet
at their lower ends, which will pull the trigger wires in the same

98

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

direction, 2 or 3 inches. As these wires are attached to all triggers,
the action is simultaneous. The upper ends of the triggers move
toward the operator, drawing the pins through the trigger hooks, and
allowing the doors to fall.

Bait — Unquestionably carrion is the bait for crows, and the
carcasses of horses, mules, or cattle will be found effective attractions.
If these can be obtained fresh, they should be cut up into sections in
the trap and the pieces distributed through its length. It is well
to allow the birds to feed unmolested for several days before attempt-
ing to pull the trap. A larger catch is thus assured. For the same
reason it is not advisable to try to operate the trap every day. Prob-
ably once a week would be about the right interval.

Jack Miner himself notes that posts and poles from the woods
may be made use of instead of trimmed lumber as the specifications
above suggest, and also that old fish netting might be used to cover
the framework in place of the galvanized poultry wire. This, obvi-
ously, would cut down the cost considerably.

THE WELL-MEANING BUT THOUGHT-
LESS PUBLIC

TN GLANCING back over my enjoyable life, which has
been far more beautiful than any dream I ever had, I
sometimes wonder if there could be another man on earth
whose experience has caused him to change his mind more
often than mine has — especially the last twenty years.
For illustration: I have, on several occasions, walked up to
a six-foot fence that surrounded a beautiful home. There
I have stood with both hands against the iron bars and
looked through at the narrow walks, overhung with a
great variety of beautiful flowers, that, together with the
lovely foliage of the different shrubs, mingled with the
fragrance of roses, have caused me to stop at the gate, only
to find it locked, saying, in plain English, "You stay out!"
I try to think up some scheme whereby the gate will be
unlocked and I will be admitted. But what is the use —
I am only Jack Miner, a common brick-maker. I have no
money to distinguish myself and never will have. My lot
is to stay out, and as I stroll away my thoughts are: "What
kind of a man lives there? He surely must be of The-Dog-
in-the-Manger type." To-day, I am sorry I ever thought
wrong of that man. Experience has taught me. Yes, I
knowr now why the six-foot fence was there, but I did not
know then. Reader, let me kindly say to you, "When
you stand face to face with what I have described, please
don't condemn that man, until you have had at least
fifteen years' experience, keeping an open house, home and
grounds for 'the well-meaning but thoughtless public.'"
Not long ago I listened to what I considered a beautiful

99

100

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

sermon in our church, but the dear man spilt the beans for
me, when he wound up, by weaving in "The House by the
Side of the Road." He went on to state how an aged
couple lived back in a little glen. At the road entrance
was a sign, "Come in," and, as you followed the winding
path and crossed a little brook on stepping stones, you
suddenly came upon a crystal spring, trickling from a huge
rock, that was overhung with small shrubbery and vines.

4* . ,

Interested Folk Flocked to the Miner Sanctuary.

Here was a cup and another sign, "Take a Drink," and as
you advanced farther you suddenly came upon a small clear-
ing. Here was their home. Upon the front verandah
was a barrel of choice apples and a sign, "Help Yourself."
It was a beautiful theme, though I couldn't help but think,
as I looked the man in the face: "My dear fellow, if you
knew what you were talking about, you would not say the
things you are saying."

That night, after we had gone to bed (which was the

THE WELL-MEANING BUT THOUGHTLESS PUBLIC

101

first privacy we had all day), my wife asked: "What did
you think of this morning's sermon?" Now I try to be big
enough not to pick faults. I never heard a sermon that did
not give me many good thoughts, but this time I broke my
rule and said, "It was all right, except for the wind-up."
"The House by the Side of the Road," pictured as he
pictured it, was evidently correct, when the country was in
the ox-cart stage, and our speed limit was "fourteen miles in

One Penalty of Becoming Famous — the Visitors Kept "Uncle Jack" Busy
Checking Them Up.

fifteen hours" and our neighbors were ten miles apart.
But to-day, with our double-geared lightning communica-
tion, our suicide speed limit, and so many people who
apparently have no interest in this world except the twenty-
five or fifty-dollar interest they have in an old, second-hand
car, I tell you, we are facing a different proposition. Per-
sonally, I found out that I am within one hour of nearly
two million people, including the city of Detroit. There
has often been from fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred

102

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

people here on one Sunday. Now, as for the drinking cup
and the barrel of apples this man described : Why bless your
life, who would want to be the fifteen-hundredth one to
follow the artificial faces of the present day, and put his
lips to the germ-corroded, old tin cup? The apples and the
sign, "Help yourself?" Why, bless you, to-day Henry
would say to Jim, "Hurry, take hold with me, and we will
put the whole barrel in our car."

A few odd years ago, as we were coming home from

The Personnel of Conventions Often Came to See the Place.

church, another Ford went by. A voice shouted, "Hello,
Jack! " and out of the open side of the car a man was waving
a big bunch of darwin tulips. I presume, his way of letting
me know that, during my absence, he had honored me by
a visit. As soon as I arrived home, and could break away
from the many people that were there to greet me, I strolled
over to my choice tulip bed. What an aggravating sight
it was. For this innocent, ignorant man had plucked the
whole side bare. Tulips that I had paid a shilling apiece

THE WELL-MEANING BUT THOUGHTLESS PUBLIC 103

for. I cannot think wrong of that man, because he evi-
dently thought tulips came up like grass — a nice new lot of
blooms the next day.

Well, that same day, about four-fifteen, we returned
from Sunday school. The road in front of the house was
a line-up of cars. People were tramping all over our
premises and had frightened every bird away. All mudded
in around the house were eight or ten old hard-tire, balloon-
top cars that didn't appear to have had a bath since the

Visitors' Cars Usurped the Roadway in Front of the Miner Home.

hail storm of 1912. When we got to the door of our home
we were greeted with another: " Hello, Jack! Say, Jack,
we came right in and made ourselves at home. Jack, I
want you to meet my people from Smithville. We've been
all over the place, but they wanted to meet you. " And we
found from twenty to thirty people in our house, strangers we
had never seen before nor since. They had used our home,
from bathroom to kitchen. Imagine, if you can, what
the place was like. They had tramped all over the twenty-
five acres of sticky clay and all over our house, smoking and
spitting, " waiting for Jack to come home."

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JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

Speaking of smoking, really, I can only thank God that
I haven't been burned out years ago. I have picked up as
many as three smouldering stubs in my barn-yard in one
day.

The thoughtless public! I have put up signs around the
place to direct people. These have been repeatedly torn
down and thrown aside. I have signs, "No Smoking,
Please," posted in many places throughout my buildings,

Motorists Came in Droves and Made Themselves at Home.

and yet an aged man, right in my presence, deliberately
walked up and struck a match on one of them, and started
his pipe agoing. When spoken to, he replied, in the presence
of at least twenty-five other men : "I smoke around my own
buildings. I'm careful with my fires."

Not so long ago, when we were eating dinner, I heard
a horn blowing at our door. As I approached, a gruff voice
said, "Who in Blank parked their car right in this drive?"
"Pardon me, Mister," I said, "that is my car." "Well,

THE WELL-MEANING BUT THOUGHTLESS PUBLIC;

105

isn't this public property?" was his reply. I overheard
another man say: "He has a right to do this. The govern-
ment is paying him."

Now, what I have mentioned are only flashes of what
I have had to endure on my own property. When you see
a fence in front of my place, please don't blame me for it.
Dear people, it is the hardest job I ever went at. It is "The
Thoughtless Public" that have erected that fence — not
Jack Miner. I think that I have done remarkably well in

Visitors on the Miner Baseball Field.

holding out as long as I have, when, in our public parks,
saying nothing about a private home, there has to be a man
wearing a blue coat and brass buttons to keep the public
from carrying off everything but the grizzly bear. I have
tried not to speak a cross word to a living person and I know
that I have used rich and poor alike. If any have been
slighted, I am sure it is the former. But, now, I am going
to start over. I am going to add firmness to my list.
Experience has taught me three lessons. First — you cannot

106

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

do anything for the public, nor have anything for the
public unless you control the public. Second — kindness
without firmness is a total failure. Third — and this is best

One Thoughtless Visitor Drove Through
"Uncle Jack's" Pet Tulip Bed.

of all — fully ninety per cent, of the people that come here
are just lovely.

Now, as for my place being "Government Property"
— nothing could be farther from fact. My property
belongs to me just the same as yours belongs to you, and the
very minute that you come off the road you are my guest.

THE WELL-MEANING BUT THOUGHTLESS PUBLIC

107

I want you to realize that, and to know that I am anxious
to treat you as a guest.

So many persons have volunteered their advice as to
how I can make this a paying proposition, more especially
on Sunday. I don't know how many have told me to
put up a gas station, a hot-dog, postcard and general
souvenir stand. Oh, yes, I could go this suggestion one
better. I could have a nice dancing floor, way back among
the beautiful growth of evergreens, where all the young
people from Dan to Beersheba could gather nights, especially
Saturday nights. I could charge them twenty-five cents to
get in and the rest they had to get out. I could have a
little boot-legging going on in the distance. Just far
enough away so I could get the big profit and the other
fellow get caught and pay the fine. In fact, I could create
a little hell right here on my way to heaven.

"Oh, but," a lady says, "Mr. Miner, I am Mrs. Dr.
Golden Slippers." In reply, let me say, "There is nothing
here for sale, and Mrs. Dr. Golden Slippers has no more
right nor privilege here than Mrs. Hank Overalls." You
know, there are a lot of things that money cannot buy
and I want to be included. Please let me say to my many
friends: "Don't offer tips here. It is wrong education,
and so embarrassing to some other fellow who is tipped out
and cannot follow suit."

Now, if the people, after looking around the premises,
would only leave! But a great percentage of them will
stand around our back door. Last summer I saw the
members of our household ironing on the back verandah
with fifty-three persons looking on and asking questions.
This particular bunch stood for over an hour, taking in
the sights. The next week our ironing was done in the
basement, beside a coal-oil lamp. Ladies, I ask you to put

108

JACK MINER ON CURRENT TOPICS

yourselves in the same embarrassing position. What are
the comforts of home, when you are driven into the base-
ment for privacy and have to lock the doors to keep "The
Thoughtless Public" out.

Now for this Sunday recreation, or making this a dump-
ing-place on Sunday — let me tell you this. My father
bought and paid for this land and in 1878 moved his family
here. There was one thing he did not buy, as it was not for

A Familiar Scene in the Old Days when the Sanctuary was Open to the Public.

sale: that is the Christian atmosphere that was established,
and although he was not a professing Christian there is this
that I do know. He would not have brought his big family
here if there had not been that spirit of Christianity estab-
lished. This Christianity cost somebody something and
it is not mine to dispose of, but I am duty bound to hold fast
and, by the help of God, I am going to.

So please tell the world there is absolutely no public
admittance at Jack Miner's on Sunday. As much as I would

THE WELL-MEANING BUT THOUGHTLESS PUBLIC 109

like to meet Lloyd George and Calvin Coolidge, I would
rather be deprived of the honor than break my Sunday
rule and admit them while one hundred people stood out on
the road, unable to come in, because it was the Sabbath day.

I am going to build a fence this spring. I am going to
move my choicest flowers and plant them beside the road
so you won't have to ask permission or get out of your car
to see them, and from April 1st (any day except Sunday)

The Miner Place is now adequately fenced — But see how flowers planted
along the roadside in front of the home avoid any unsightliness.

to the 20th in the morning, my front gate will be open to
the public. Then you can come in, and go up into my
" oblookatory " and take a look at the birds. Bring your
field glasses with you and you can see the tags on the legs of
the wild geese. But remember that the best time to see them
is early in the morning — real early — at daylight, if possible.

Yes, I am going to change my plan. While I am going
to try and be kind, yet I am going to be as firm as the
British lion.

THE WELL-MEANING BUT THOUGHTLESS PUBLIC 1 1 1

Now, in closing, dear people, don't think harsh of me
for locking the gate. It is not because I want to, but because
I have got to. Really, I don't know what I have done to
cause it, but the fact is I don't get as much privacy as a
side-show ape and even the strength of Jack Dempsey or
Gene Tunney couldn't stand this hustle bustle around his
home year in and year out. And let me say to the average,
country-property owner, if you will take one-half the pride
and one-quarter of the expense you have put into your
automobile the last eight years and convert it into love
and willing hands for home-building for the next eight years
you, too, will attract the public from all directions and,
with your consent, I will direct my Sunday visitors to you.
Now don't forget the time for a visit to Jack Miner's—
April the 1st to 20th, to see the birds.

So, tell the world. Don't let your friends come any
other time of the year and be disappointed by finding the
gate locked. But parties of fifty or more that are interested
enough to make special arrangements will be cheerfully
admitted at any time during the week, before six p.m.,
except Sundays. Yes, I am here to do all you could expect
any human individual to do. So let us apply the Golden
Rule on both sides of the fence, but kindly consider I am
only one, while you are millions.

Your friend,

JACK MINER.

9fe

^g^m^ ^^^m^

JACK MINER

on Current Topics