Water jowl 207 



are five Federal wardens in the region, and about 350 State wardens. Each state 

 has from 40 to 70 men. 



Neither the five present Federal wardens, nor any conceivable future in- 

 crease in their numbers, could possibly suffice to enforce the law. The active 

 help of the State officers is absolutely necessary. Happily in most States it is 

 freely given. 



Shooting Practices. The most radical recent change in waterfowl shoot- 

 ing practices is the growth of artificial baiting. Baiting has widely divergent 

 aspects. It has made possible such beneficent innovations as Jack Miner's goose 

 refuge. On the other hand it has made possible the systematic commercialized 

 killing of great numbers of ducks on absolutely dry cornfields miles from water. 

 The intergradations between these two extremes are gradual, and show no sharp 

 line to which legislative controls could easily be attached. 



The baiting capital of America is Beardstown, Illinois. In the bottoms 

 above and below Beardstown, clubs and commercial shooting grounds in 1928 

 were putting out as high as 7,000 bushels of corn per season on a 20-acre tract. 

 The rates per acre ran up to 430 bushels per season. One baited dry-land com- 

 mercial shooting preserve killed 4,000 ducks in 60 days on 40 acres, or 100 

 ducks per acre per year. When this kill is compared with the duck-producing 

 capacity of even the best breeding grounds, the real meaning of the word "con- 

 centration area" becomes more apparent. This preserve breeds not even a tad- 

 pole, and would have to restore 4,000 acres of the choicest breeding grounds to be 

 biologically self-sustaining. Its kill of 4,000 ducks is 266 limits shot by possibly 

 100 licensees contributing perhaps $200 to restore game. Even if this sum were 

 all devoted to marshland restoration, it would buy possibly 20 acres producing 20 

 ducks per year. As a matter of fact only a very small fraction of it is devoted to 

 waterfowl restoration. It is conservative to estimate that the biological books of 

 this dry-land "preserve" are "in the red" some 80,000 per cent. 



Commercial preserves and toll farms on the Illinois place six or even 10 guns 

 over each "pen" of live decoys. It is frequently compulsory to shoot only at 

 flocks small enough to be "cleaned up." One objection to dry bait grounds is 

 that the flocks which come in are too large to be "cleaned." Pot-shooting on the 

 water or ground is prevalent on commercial preserves and toll farms, and un- 

 fortunately even in some clubs. 



Practice as to Limits and Hours. The Federal warden is authority for 

 the statement that until the recent reduction in the Federal limit, all but one or 

 two clubs observed the Federal limit of 25 rather than the State limit of 15. 



This seems to reverse the underlying idea of the migratory bird law that the 

 lower of the two limits should govern. I gathered that the practice met with 

 acquiescence on the part of both State and Federal wardens. 



Some of the main clubs are said to have shot 30 ducks, 15 each for hunter 

 and "pusher." 



