CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 557 



An officer of a great ammunition company assures me that 

 over nine hundred milHon loaded shotgun cartridges were 

 sold in the United States in 1910, and about one hundred 

 million in Canada. Only a small proportion of these were shot 

 at clay pigeons, etc., for only thirty-six million of these in- 

 animate targets were made here that year. We do not know 

 how many loaded shells were shipped abroad or how many were 

 imported into this country; we have no means of knowing 

 how many shells were bought empty and loaded by the hunt- 

 ers; nor do we know how many rifle cartridges were used, 

 or how many shots were fired at birds from muzzle loaders and 

 other weapons, but nine hundred and sixty-four million prob- 

 ably approximates the number of shot charges actually fired at 

 birds and other game in the United States and Canada in one 

 year. If the increase of hunters, guns and ammunition con- 

 tinues, and the supply of birds continues to decrease, there 

 will come a year when there will be ten cartridges made and 

 loaded for every game bird in America. 



If hunting is to be continued in this country it must be 

 regulated everywhere, and the supply of game must be in- 

 creased, otherwise shooting will come to an end eventually for 

 want of game to shoot, and the manufacturers of guns and 

 ammunition will have to find a market elsewhere or give up 

 business. American manufacturers of guns and ammunition 

 realize this and have formed a national association for the 

 protection and propagation of game, to which they will con- 

 tribute a large sum annually. 



There are many excellent and humane people who believe 

 that there is but one remedy for the present condition. They 

 say, *' if you want to save the birds you must stop killing 

 them." If no game were killed by man in this country for a 

 series of years, all game would increase in numbers. The 

 recent rapid increase and spread of deer over southern New 

 England, in regions where deer were extinct for many years, 

 shows the value of the perpetual close season. Let us consider 

 this matter, however, from the standpoint of the sportsman 

 and the gunner. 



