Game Administration 255 



Sunday Laws. One aspect of the farm trespass situation illustrates with 

 particular force the prevailing tendency to resort to indirect expedients, instead 

 of squarely facing the issue. This is the growth of Sunday hunting laws. 



By and large, laws prohibiting or limiting Sunday hunting are characteristic 

 of the South rather than the North. In the north central region, Missouri, In- 

 diana, and Michigan have statutes on the subject. The Michigan law, which dates 

 back to 1905, was evidently the forerunner of the Horton trespass law quoted in 

 Table 56, and passed in 1927. It provides: 



"It shall be unlawful for any person to hunt for game with firearms, dogs, 

 or otherwise, on Sunday on any lands or premises of another in Oakland County 

 . . . without consent of the owner or leasee." 



Oakland County lies just outside of Detroit. The fact that the law is limited 

 to one county and that it does not prohibit hunting provided the landowner con- 

 sents, is plain evidence that the motive was to strike indirectly at the farm tres- 

 pass nuisance, rather than to deal with any question of ethics. 



Reversion of Lands. One of the most important economic changes af- 

 fecting game lands and game administration in the north central region is the 

 tendency for marginal farms and cutover timber holdings to revert to the State or 

 county by reason of non-payment of taxes. 



The abandonment of cultivation on reverted farms affects game favorably or 

 unfavorably, depending on the kind of game, the length of time for which the 

 lands remain uncultivated, whether or not they become subject to annual fires, 

 and most of all whether the reversions occur in solid blocks of large size, or in 

 isolated pieces interspersed with land still in cultivation. By and large, reversion 

 increases game cover, but decreases game feed, especially if it continues long 

 enough for the initial growth of weeds to be supplanted by grass or trees. A 

 spattering of small pieces is usually favorable to small game, but solid blocks are 

 unfavorable. 



Reversion is naturally most prevalent in the types containing the poorest 

 soils. In the north central region it is most prominent in the forest and transition 

 types of the Lake States, and in the hill belt along the southern edge of the 

 region. It is also occurring, however, in the poorer parts of the riverbreaks type 

 in northeast Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, and in the poorer 

 parts of the till plains, especially in the neighborhood of the automobile manu- 

 facturing towns in southern Michigan. Near these towns the high wages prevalent 

 in manufacturing plants are forcing the abandonment of farms because they re- 

 turn a much lower wage to their owners than they are able to earn in a factory. 



The reversions in the Forest Belt of the Lake States now occur in such large 

 blocks that they are probably unfavorable to prairie chickens by reason of the 

 diminution of grain feed. They may, however, be favorable to deer. 



The reversions in the southern Hill Belt are almost certainly unfavorable to 

 quail, by reason of diminution in grain feed. Those in the till plain and river 



