406 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc, 



may come back to our streams, ponds and shores, and breed as they 

 did long ago. Teal once bred as far south as Long Island. Canada 

 geese nested in this State, and even as far south as New Mexico. 

 Now they have been driven north, beyond the borders of the United 

 States. 



The mere presence of man disturbs the birds very little, where no 

 shooting is allowed. This has been proved in many cases where the 

 wildest of wild fowl have become very tame in localities where they 

 were unmolested. Since spring duck shooting was stopped by law in 

 New York State the black ducks have bred in considerable numbers 

 on Fisher's Island. New York and Connecticut have already passed 

 laws which establish the beginning of the close season for wild ducks 

 on January 1. New Hampshire takes February 1 as her date, except in 

 one county, and a considerable number of other States and provinces 

 of North America are already in advance of Massachusetts in this 

 matter. 



A law should be enacted here forbidding the taking or killing of all 

 wild fowl and shore birds between the first day of January and the 

 first day of September, in order that the birds may be absolutely 

 undisturbed during that season and that some of them may breed 

 here unmolested. Wherever such a law has been passed and enforced 

 in a single State the effect has been beneficial almost immediately, 

 and the birds which have been driven out have come back, bred and 

 increased rapidly. 



A Resident Hunting License. 

 A law requiring a one-dollar license fee of all resident hunters is 

 now an absolute necessity. Unless such a law is passed the non- 

 resident license law will remain a dead letter, for unless all hunters 

 are licensed it is difficult, if not impossible, for the officers in the 

 field to identify non-residents of the State. A resident license law, 

 which gives to the hunter no privilege he does not now possess and 

 gives to the landowner the right to examine the licenses of all hunters 

 who are found upon his land, would furnish money for the protection 

 and propagation of game, and would largely do away with a class of 

 irresponsible trespassing hunters that is now a source of much irrita- 

 tion and injury to the farming population. Such laws are not ex- 

 periments. They originated in the agricultural States of the middle 

 west, and have given good results in the protection of birds and game 

 and the safeguarding of rural property. 1 



Prohibit the Sale of Game Birds. 



How much longer can our game birds be expected to survive with 



a price set upon their heads? If a man should attempt to cut down 



a great tree by snipping off the little twigs with scissors, he would 



be advised to begin with the axe at the root. In the attempt to 



1 Since the above was written, a law requiring the registration of all resident hunters 

 has passed the Legislature. It becomes operative Jan. 1, 1909. 



