218 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



This illustrates one important point about land use. Every 

 part of land use is geared to every other part. What destroys 

 the soil, destroys the rivers, wild life, and finally the social insti" 

 tutions of men. If you build up the soil, trie flood problem will be 

 lessened, land users will have a more stable life, wild life will 

 have food and cover. The use of the land is like balancing 

 weights on a scale. If one of the weights is changed, the scale 

 is out of balance. If one factor of land use, the forests, for exam' 

 pie, are mismanaged, the whole problem of land use is out of 

 balance. 



HUNTING LAWS 



Since the migratory birds, like the wild duck, are under the 

 jurisdiction of the Biological Survey, the Survey sets the 

 limits of the hunting season and the number of birds each 

 hunter may take throughout the country. This is the only case 

 in which the Biological Survey has such power, but it illustrates 

 the problem of evolving fair hunting laws. 



The Biological Survey gets reports from the various regions 

 through which the waterfowl pass. Most of this reporting is 

 done by four of the Survey's flyway biologists who follow the 

 migration from Canada to Mexico. From these reports the 

 Survey determines how many birds there are and how many 

 can be shot without endangering the survival of the species. The 

 next problem is to find a hunting season which will be long 

 enough to satisfy the hunters, and short enough to save the 

 ducks. The Survey in 1936, for example, said that there could be 

 thirty continuous days of duck shooting. These thirty days were 

 any period within which the ducks would be passing through 

 the state concerned. 



Some hunters objected to a thirty-day consecutive season 

 for their state on the grounds that the state was too big. In 

 Arizona, for example, many hunters would like to have one 

 season for the northern part of the state, when the ducks are 



