AMERICAN DUCK CLUBS 103 



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It is nonsense to say that the trespass laws should not 

 be enforced or that they should be repealed. The owners 

 of farms and cattle ranches in the West have the right to 

 prevent the introduction of buffalo as "State" game. 

 The farmers have prevented the introduction of "State" 

 pheasants in some places, and the owners of duck lands 

 prevent trespass. 



The State can provide public parks for public shoot- 

 ing, but, as I have insisted often, it cannot license gun- 

 ners to shoot up the farms or other lands owned by indi- 

 viduals who object to trespassers. 



The duck clubs can do much to overcome the foolish 

 prejudice which exists against them in some localities if 

 they will become breeders of wild fowl and will purchase 

 stock birds and eggs and undertake the artificial produc- 

 tion of game of all sorts. If they will sell some of the 

 game produced, so that the markets are fully supplied 

 with game during a long open season, the people soon 

 will uphold them, since they will appear to be beneficial 

 to others besides themselves. Shooters who do nothing 

 towards breeding game soon will find the shooting on 

 public waters much improved, and all controversy 

 should come to an end. 



Mr. Frank Bonnett in a series of articles written for 

 The Amateur Sportsman on "English Game Preserving," 

 described the formation of a shooting club, or a syndicate, 

 at they say in England, and gave the figures, showing 

 that it does not cost much to have good shooting in Eng- 

 land, where lands and shooting rentals are many times 

 higher than they are in America. 



I know some sportsmen who have fairly good shoot- 

 ing in America at a cost of from $15 to $25 per gun, and 



