32 OUR BIG GAME 



The number of men who shoot for sport is increas- 

 ing rapidly. It is estimated that ten thousand annu- 

 ally hunt in Maine. As wealth increases, there are 

 more men who can afford to shoot, and shooting priv- 

 ileges become valuable. There are many large tracts 

 in the West which now produce nothing but which 

 would yield a large revenue if kept stocked with game. 

 " Shoots," to use an English expression, will become 

 more valuable as the game in the unpreserved tracts is 

 exterminated. Shares in clubs where game-birds only 

 are preserved have already risen in value. As a busi- 

 ness proposition some large game preserves in the 

 West would prove paying investments. Hotels in the 

 South, such as those at Pinehurst and at Old Point 

 Comfort, etc., are now preserving and propagating 

 feathered game on immense tracts, and find that it 

 pays. As I stated in " Our Feathered Game," it is 

 estimated that in Scotland the Highland land owners 

 receive $2,200,000 annually for shooting privileges. 

 These figures give the value of shootings when prop- 

 erly looked after, and " all this money is derived from 

 land, which in the days of our grandfathers produced 

 practically nothing." * Sportsmen in the West who or- 

 ganize large game preserves now can procure the land 

 for very little. They can provide shooting for them- 

 selves, and at the same time save the game ; in the 

 end they will own a property which has increased in 

 value from year to year. There are, I believe, many 

 men who would contribute to maintain such shooting 

 preserves, who would never fire a weapon more dan- 

 gerous than a camera, but who would not object to 



* British Sportsman. 



