524 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The use of the automatic gun should be prohibited. No 

 one who regards the protection of game as important should 

 ever use one. 



Those who wish to forbid all shooting by boys and aliens 

 are right; unquestionably this should be done. There 

 should be an age limit for shooters, and the aliens who, 

 boy like, shoot at nearly every wild thing they see, should 

 be stopped from carrying arms altogether. 



Hunting Licenses. Possibly both these classes might be 

 shut out largely by licensing all shooters. Apparently the 

 license has now come to this country to stay. In a recent bul- 

 letin, entitled "Hunting licenses, their history, objects and 

 limitations,"* Dr. T. S. Palmer of the United States Bio- 

 logical Survey gives a history of the hunting license in this 

 and foreign countries. The license not only furnishes money 

 for the enforcement of the law by paid wardens, but it also 

 increases the interest of the citizen in its enforcement. A 

 man who has paid a liberal license fee is not likely to encour- 

 age others in hunting without a license. The amount re- 

 ceived from licenses may be considerable. Maine collected 

 last year more than twenty-five thousand dollars ; Wiscon- 

 sin, ninety thousand dollars ; and Illinois, nearly one hun- 

 dred thousand dollars. Massachusetts could never hope to 

 reach these figures, but she might succeed in preventing 

 hunting or shooting by many non-citizens and non-residents 

 through a high-license system discriminating against them. 

 Here, however, we are met by the objection that such an 

 act would be unconstitutional ; but this is a question to be 

 decided by the courts. The imposition of a license is noth- 

 ing new. One of the earliest license laws passed in this 

 country was enacted in Virginia in April, 1691. In the 

 early part of our history such laws were few and perhaps 

 unnecessary ; but within the last twenty-five years their 

 necessity seems to have become apparent, and within ten 

 years their number has increased rapidly. They are now 

 in force in thirty-five States and Territories in this country, 

 and also in the seven provinces of Canada. Many foreign 



* Bulletin No. 19, United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Bio- 

 logical Survey. 



