20 FISH AND GAME. 



The cause of fish and game protection suffers primarily from 

 a conspicuous lack of a broad foundation of fact. Only too 

 often personal opinions, based on faulty or incomplete observa- 

 tions, have brought about ill-advised legislation. For the solu- 

 tion of the problem a careful and scientific analysis of facts is 

 essential. We must know more about the life history of birds 

 and animals, the interdependence of the various species of 

 animals and plants, and the peculiar diseases which affect fish 

 and game. We must study reasonably accurate records of each 

 species. The number of hunters, the productive capacity and 

 condition of the areas hunted and unhunted, and the effects of 

 an increasing population must be known. Records of such 

 prominent facts would surely furnish some substantial basis for 

 intelligent legislative action. The preceding generation ridiculed 

 as vague, theoretical and impractical a similar biological study 

 of agricultural operation, but the substantial results already 

 secured by the department of agriculture are of exceeding- 

 value to the present generation. The hunters' license system 

 is but the beginning of an undertaking which will ultimately 

 furnish similar information for the better utilization and con- 

 servation of our fish and game. Massachusetts has for many 

 years required the commercial fishermen to make sworn state- 

 ments relative to their annual catch, not for the purpose of 

 unnecessarily restricting the catch, but to secure information 

 for intelligent legislation. Licensed sportsmen can even more 

 effectually co-operate with the department of fisheries and 

 game by rendering a truthful statement of the birds and quad- 

 rupeds killed, in this way furnishing a large volume of useful 

 data, which in due time would become available for improving 

 conditions. 



Enforcement of Lau\ 



The enforcement of the fish and game laws forms an im- 

 portant branch of the activities of this department, the cost 

 approximating one-third of the total appropriation. The stat- 

 utes contain a large number of provisions relative to the pro- 

 tection and taking of fish and game, including many special 

 statutes for particular localities, the enforcement of which, 

 owing to their complicated and even contradictory nature, ne- 

 cessitates considerable expense and labor. Generally speaking, 



