250 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Before next season a public hearing will be held at which shippers 

 and others interested in the importation of quail will exchange views 

 and aid the department in formulating revised regulations to prevent 

 the introduction of birds affected either with quail disease or bird 

 pox. 



INFORMATION CONCERNING GAME LAWS. 



The game laws of the various States for the year have been carded, 

 thus keeping up to date the index of game legislation. Owing to 

 the demand for information on certain topics of game legislation, 

 work on a subject index has been actively prosecuted and memoranda 

 on some of the more important phases prepared. This index will be 

 compiled as rapidly as time permits. The regular annual publica- 

 tions, including a directory of game officials, the sixteenth annual 

 summary of game laws, a general poster showing open seasons for 

 game, and a local poster showing open seasons for North Carolina, 

 where there are many laws applying to particular counties, were 

 issued and widely distributed. Sets of ready-reference card maps 

 illustrating in condensed form five topics of game legislation of 

 special interest to various State game officials also were published. 



INTERSTATE COMMERCE IN GAME. 



Illegal exportations of game from various States, involving viola- 

 tions of sections 242, 243, and 244 of the Criminal Code of the United 

 States, known as the Lacey Act, are becoming fewer with a more 

 rigid enforcement of the Federal law under a reorganization of the 

 force which went into effect March 1, 1916. Three inspectors are 

 now employed, having their headquarters accessible to points where 

 illegal shipments have been most frequent. Forty-five cases have 

 been reported to the solicitor's office during the year, 18 of these 

 since March 1. The cases involved violations in 19 States. Game 

 illegally shipped consisted of partridges (ruffed grouse), wild ducks, 

 reed birds, Carolina rails or soras, quail, squirrels, and deer. One 

 shipment, comprising 1,162 pounds of venison, was made from Mich- 

 igan, for which a fine of $200 was imposed. Only 15 cases of viola- 

 tions remain on file for investigation, but this number does not in- 

 clude cases in hands of inspectors but not yet reported. 



Fifty-five cases, including some reported in the previous fiscal 

 year, were disposed of by the Department of Justice, as follows: 

 Thirty-four by conviction and the imposition of fines aggregating 

 $906 and jail sentences aggregating 103 days; 1 by directed verdict 

 of not guilty ; and 20 by dismissal for want of sufficient evidence, in- 

 ability to identify defendant, or removal of defendant from the dis- 

 trict. 



With the practical termination of illegal shipping of wild water- 

 fowl from the sunken-lands district in northeastern Arkansas, and 

 with the special attention now being given the matter in the larger 

 cities in the North, progress has been made in the conservation of 

 wild game birds so far as illegal sale and shipment to market is 

 concerned. Special attention will be directed to a few prominent 

 cities in the South, where reports indicate that wild waterfowl are 

 being illegally shipped during certain periods of the year. 



