Iowa Conservationist •---~------...W~
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ions l awn up ittman 1s were Glogical DECEMBER 15, 1949 Number 12 if the Volume 8 nserva m biol popula needed tensive THE PHEASANT SEASON IN THE PRESS mone) ----. • • lpated. * * • • * * * • The Iowa pheasant opening, as not as MISTLETOE game usual, depends upon the viewpoint. Hunters who bagged a limit with trol, or By Roberts l\la nn out much trouble are inclined to It is, Fore._t Prt-,t-n e J)l.,trit•t of Cook Count), llllno i'i ward the "plenty of birds" theory. method Others, less fortunate, believe ring popula· Among our cherished customs at necks are scarce in certain areas. creased Christmas time is that of deco- J ojective rating our homes with mistletoe, On the whole, it looks like the itat de· particularly with branches of it opening days could be termed at least fairly good. Reports from i which bung over doorways and from ceil d. ings. Why do we do this? From northwest Iowa, where pheasants whence came the custom of kiss are most plentiful, indicate shoot ing was good. DavenpoTt Times. !GELL ing under the mistletoe? Where did it get its name? f Pheasant hunting remains good, tttle by No one knows, nor can botanists .. tell us bow or where this strange although the birds are getting a lit te sport .. tie wild after a week's shooting. those plant originated. Its mysterious 15 habits of living and reproducing, Nearly everyone I talked to bas ~r the high up on the branches of trees, had good luck. It doesn't seem to eived a make any difference where they go of the caused it to be credited with magi 0 cal properties and regarded with . .L. there are pheasants aplenty this ruxnan year, it seem s.-Council Bluff tan age· superstitious fear or religious rev erence by prtmtttve and ancient N onpw·eil. peoples. During the feasts of Sa d both Local mmrods report pbeasanL t xnajor turnalia, in mtd-December, the Ro /. as plentiful but cagey and bard to Jf prac· mans ornamented their temples and dwellings with mistletoe to bring down. Most Cascade bunters men in The opening of Iowa's pheasant season, as usual, depe nds upon the viewpoint of the propitiate gods to whom it was hunter. Those who b agged the limit without much trouble say "good ." Others less for• have sec u red birds but have 1ge "·as tunate say " poor." worked hard to get tbem.- Cas ;nserva· sacred. In Norse mythology, too, there is a complicated legend in cade Pioneer. )Ul tbf - --~------------------------- conser· volving the death of Balder, son of Odin and Frigga, and the wicked Crawford County pheasant bunt .zations ers fared well in general over the oill was Loki, whereby the mistletoe was MOONLIGHT ULULATION condemned to be a parasite with no weekend as the 1949 pursuit of :b eon· power to cause misfortune, sorrow ringnecks opened Friday. M o s t ras eJC· While the music balls of the Iowa, has been chasing the wily hunters reported at 1 e a s t some fishing or death, and beneath which any country are readying things for an pheasants, and the majority came ciation. one might receive a kiss as an ringtails for 15 years, and be still other winter concert season, here finds each opening night more home with the limit.- Denison Re artedlY assurance that it was an emblem in the Midwest a group of sports thrilling than the last. He says t:iew. during of peace and love. The ancient Druids held nothing men are getting ready for some that coon bunters are prone, like 'be onll the more sacred than the mistletoe and sweet music of their own. This others among the great bunting Hunters were out en masse again ) 111 . it played a prominent part in the group thrills to the music of an and fishing fraternity, to tamper over the weekend in search of the ;\'bicb 15 open trailer under the star-studded with the truth when the occasion reportedly large crop of pheasants, • ta.'\ on ceremontes and religious sacrifices 'cor the at the time of their New Year. ceiling of Mother Nature's great demands. While you wouldn't come but their luck in general was only concert ball. Few of these music right out and say they are lying, fair.- Clmton Herald the ta.\ There is a very old tradition, in England, that the mtstletoe was lovers enjoy the gift of absolute you might accuse them of being once a "fair tree" in the forest; pitch, but they respond to the guilty of slight terminological in Many hunters have bad the best that from its wood was made the haunting notes of their favorite exactitudes. of luck, but with the pheasants cross upon which Christ was cru coon bound's bugling with a fervor The average Iowa coon weighs bearmg so much gunfire, they have cified; and that therefore it was that is matched in few other ac about 15 pounds, with exceptions become wary and harder to get. cursed and condemned to live for tivities. They have been bitten by running as large as 30 pounds. Danbw'tl R ctlicw. ever as the most despised of plants. the strange bug that produces a Then of course there are some like There are as many cur10us cus temporary nocturnal i n s a n i t y "the one old Blue 'un," "the b1g Pheasant hunters in Franklin toms, myths and traditions involv called coon bunting fever. The dis old three-toed 'un," and others that County are reporting varying de ing the mistletoe as there are races ease reaches its peak in late au must have weighed upward of 40 grees of luck in their quest for the and nations of people. It is dis tumn and early winter, but usu pounds. These, of course, were game bird. Friday afternoon the tributed over the earth in all the ally runs its course by spring. never treed. largest number of birds were killed <Continued on pag-e 192) J o e DeArmond of Coralville, (Continued on page 191) ( Co ntin u ed o n p age 1 90) ... Page 186 IOWA CONSERVAttONrtU Iowa Conservationist •---~-----------...w~......,; -,.·-;;.;--;:.;...:-.;;·-:;;-:.·;-,;;- ·-..,..;,;.-----• much cleaner than usual. Thus - Published Monthly By with little cover, they don't looJ; PIS THE IOWA STATE CONSERVATION birdy and many hunters havE COMMlSSION been passing them up. 914 Grand Avenue-Des Moines Iowa The season lasts up to and in No Rights Reserved) eluding December 5, and there wil be much good shooting After thE N WM S. BEARDSLEY. Governor of Iowa with G. K. Jr. pheasants fCPttle down again, fol· bas BRUCE F. STILES. Director mad JAMES R HARLAN Editor •--------------------------• lowing the opening weekend blast LOIS RECKNOR. Associate Editor the spott should pick up, and it ami The Iowa Conservation Commis- south Iowa. counties are tlpen I w11I help when you don't hav€ age l s1on predicted a record of 100,000 Palo Altt> Count.y we.~ tlrawling bl~er sl:io!Jte.rs charging into your 5klll MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION hunters would open lhe pheasant last \vt!l'ktmd Wltli 1::>es Moines field from all sides without per· tho 1: G TR •ST C'1mrman Fo rt Dodg<> E. B. GA iJNITZ ..................................... Lansing season. W e believe they were rip-lit ea.rs a nd others from such places mission bun ARTHUR C. GINGERICH ................. Wellman and that 50,000 of thPm opened it as Council Bluffs and Boone. We For some reason, it seems tht and F. J, POYNEER...... ... .. ........Cedar Rapids I. D. REYNOLDS ..................................Creston in P alo AltA County. Have never must have a reputation up here longer distance a man travel!: beiD C. A. OlNGES............................... Emmetsburq SP'"n more shooters out, except- for having lots of birds, to lure frnm hdbie to hunt, the more lib a11Ilj MRS. DAVID S. KRUIDENIER. ........... Waukc3 mg those early three-day sessions hunters frnrn <~. o fat· H·om home erbes he feels free to take when me~ years ago, and what is a little Yeflfs ago there were more, prob he gets there.- Gib Knudson ~tril surprising about this is that there ably, in the block of northwest Emmetsb1ug D emocrat CIRCULATION THIS ISSUE 38.500 can be so manv In one place when Iowa counties surrounding Palo E t n I as qpcond cia matter at h most of the stale IS open territory. Alto, but we don't believe ring- I r o:.• v '""""' 01 D.,s Momes, Io wa Seple n.be. VIOLATORS PAY 22, 19.:7, und er the Act of March 24, 1912. Although many central and necks have been as thick in this Subscnpllor :1 40c per yoar .. 1n an unusually flagrant vioiabdn 3 years for S 1.00 • • * • • • • of tli@ ~tate's game la\\;s .. a pair of Subscript r ved at Conse rva h on Commtss1or., ~ ·4 Grand Avenu <;> Des West Virginia men patd tlrles total Moines, Iowa. Send cosh, check or money ing $400 for 11legal squ1rrel hunt oraer ing near Steamboat Rock. Arrested Sunday n!~kt hy Kay UNITED W E STAND Sctchell and Verne Hicks, state conservation officer and Pine Lake The conservationists who call park custodian, B J. Farley and themselves sportsmen and the con· M W Walthall of Hinton, West servalionists who call themselves Virgm1a, entered guilty pleas and land users are getting closer and paid fines in the justice court of J mat closer together all the time as they 1<1-ed Marshall at Union Monday as • find that their interests lie pre- fo11nw~ • bea cisely in the same pattern.