GTS ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and Pennsylvania also steps have been taken to restrict the traffic, 

 and evidence has been collected, and cases are now pending in the 

 courts of both of these States. 



INTERSTATE COMMERCE IN GAME. 



During the past year the Bureau has given close attention to the 

 enforcement of sections 242 and 243 of the criminal code relating to 

 the transportation of game in interstate commerce. The revised 

 code in effect January 1, 1910, amended section 242 by providing 

 that game shipped in interstate commerce in violation of the law of 

 the State from Avhich shipped was unlawful. This has materially 

 assisted in the securing of evidence necessary to warrant proceeding 

 in the Federal courts. 



In every instance the active cooperation of the State authorities, 

 where a State warden service is maintained, has been secured, and to 

 the assistance given the representative of this Bureau by the Penn- 

 sylvania Game Commission and the State (lame, Fish, and Forestry 

 Warden Depnrtjnent of Michigan, and the warden departments of 

 Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois is attributable much of the suc- 

 cess which has resulted in these States. 



Michigan. — During the entire month of October, 1911, an assistant 

 from this Bureau investigated game conditions in the Upper Penin- 

 sula of Michigan, giving particular attention to the smuggling of 

 game out of the STnte. lender orders of the Michigan warden all 

 deputies were directed to assist our representati\'e, and as a result 

 many violators were apprehended and infractions of the State laws 

 punished in the Stale courts. A number of cases involving attempted 

 export of game from the State have been reported for prosecution in 

 the Federal court for that district, and of these three have already 

 been disposed of by pleas of guilty. 



Pennsylvania. — The inspection during the month of February 

 last of the game markets of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harris- 

 burg by the secretary of the Pennsvlvania Game Commission and an 

 assistant detailed from this ofiice resulted in the securing of evidence 

 sufficient to waiTant criminal proceedings against shippers in Mary- 

 land, Kentuclcy, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. It 

 will be noticed that in none of these States are they provided with 

 an efficient warden service, in nearly every instance the enforcement 

 of the game laws being left entirely to local officers. It should be 

 added, however, that the discover}- by this Bureau of evidence dis- 

 closing the shipment during the months of November and December 

 last of more than 6,000 quail from one point in Kentucky resulted in 

 the immediate enactment of a modem, up-to-date game commission 

 bill providing for salaried wardens and supported by a general 

 hunting-license system. 



Virginia. — Considerable time was spent in the coast region of 

 Virginia, in the counties of Princess Anne, Norfolk, Northampton, 

 and Accomac, investigating waterfowl conditions, and it was found 

 large numbers of black mallards were annually trapped on the low 

 marshy lands near the coast and shipped to the game markets of otiier 

 States. A number of prosecutions were begun both against the ship- 



