114 



^^ 



to use it in establishing several small farms rather than to put it all in an 

 elaborate show place. 



It is essential that the business be carried on just as any other private 

 business would be run on a basis to show a profit at the end of each year. 

 Where too much money is invested in overhead charges this cannot be 

 done. As a general proposition it is not good business to turn out birds 

 at a state farm at a cost greater than the same birds could be purchased 

 in the open market. Sometimes, however, this item may be neglected 

 where the state turns out better birds or birds better adapted to the locality. 



CAUSES OF FAILURE.— It is a well recognized fact in the history 

 of state propagation of pheasants that some states which have started game 

 farms have been successful and others unsuccessful. I have been at some 

 pains to investigate the causes which lead to failure and from the facts 

 which are available I have come to the conclusion that aside from poor 

 management there are so far just two causes of failure which stand pre- 

 eminently above all others. These causes are the failure to protect the 

 planted birds from pot hunters and the failure to select stock which will 

 produce birds capable of rearing their young and protecting them against 

 vermin. 



The protection of birds put out for stocking purposes from law viola- 

 tors is an administrative function of the game protective department and 

 it is also an educational function of that department and of sportsmen's 

 organizations. A handsome and unusual bird like the pheasant attracts 

 the attention of ignorant shooters who will often exert more energy in kill- 

 ing off the birds in violation of the law than they will in hunting legitimate 

 game found in the same covers. In my experience in game protection 

 I have found numerous instances where broods of pheasants which had 

 overcome natural disadvantages and gained a promising foothold in a 

 section were annihilated by local pot hunters. It is therefore of particu- 

 lar importance in localities where pheasants are stocked that the local 

 sentiment be educated and that incorrigible game law violators be ferreted 

 out and punished. 



I believe, however, that the most glaring cause for the failure of cer- 

 tain states to stock successfully their areas with pheasants has come from 

 selecting as breeding stock birds which are too highly specialized as egg 

 producers under the modern system of hand rearing. 



THE ENGLISH PHEASANT.— I have no brief against the English 

 pheasant. It has sterling advantages for many purposes and is undoubt- 

 edly the best for many clubs that raise the birds each year which they 

 intend to shoot. For the purposes of a state propagation plant, however, 

 where only a limited number of birds can be sent to any one locality and 



