50 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



The Future of Game Breeding 



With increasing knowledge of the subject game breeding promises 

 to become a well established industry. Situations can be found in the 

 different parts of the state which offer ideal conditions for rearing the 

 various types of game birds. The market is continually improving 

 because of the diminishing supply of wild-killed game. Without doubt 

 a few more years will see the passage of a non-sale law, after which 

 any game offered for sale in the markets will necessarily have been 

 reared in captivity. Prices even now are high enough to encourage 

 any resourceful person in starting a game farm. 



As more people become interested in the subject many of the 

 problems which now discourage the breeder will probably be solved 

 and the business of rearing game for the market be made easier and 

 more profitable in consequence. 



Breeding Under Natural Conditions 



It is difficult to improve on nature and hence game covers can, as a 

 rule, be restocked more easily by a stimulation of breeding under 

 natural conditions than by propagation in captivity. When an area 

 is set aside and the birds encouraged by being given the best of food 

 and cover, and by adequate protection from their enemies, a remark- 

 able increase in numbers follows. A knowledge of this fact has led 

 to the inauguration of the preserve system by wealthy land owners, 

 and later to the idea of game refuges. Under the private preserve 

 the birds are usually better cared for than under the game-refuge 

 system, since in the former case, all their needs are attended to by 

 expert caretakers, and in the latter the only assistance usually given 

 them is protection from hunting. But although in most instances the 

 preserve system is the better method of rearing game birds, it has 

 certain drawbacks. The most obvious of these is the difficulty of secur- 

 ing the large area required for the enterprise. Hundreds of acres are 

 needed to rear birds under natural conditions, whereas a lev: acres are 

 sufficient for a game farm. Moreover, if the birds are to be marketed 

 or distributed, it is difficult to trap them. In spite of these difficulties, 

 however, there is no doubt but that the restocking of depleted covers 

 can be realized more satisfactorily in this way than through the arti- 

 ficial propagation of the birds on game farms, where ease of living 

 makes them tame and incapable of properly caring for themselves 

 when turned loose in the wild. 



There are few places in California Avhere game conditions are 

 better than on certain large ranches. Here the birds may be given 

 adequate protection without a radical change being made in their 



