28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



Arguments that there is no money in the business do not seem 

 to be the final answer to this question. Capital, that ever-present 

 factor in all development, has undoubtedly been attracted to 

 those great centers where these animals are now produced on a 

 large scale, and while we may have all the conditions necessary 

 for their rearing, cattle, sheep and swine will not come back with- 

 out some decided and joint effort on the part of the farmer and 

 capitalist. 



Wild Game. 



Last year the secretary made several suggestions relative to 

 the farmer and the game question, particularly in relation to 

 pheasants. A bill introduced in an attempt to change the time 

 of the open season on all game failed of enactment through the 

 opposition of the sportsmen. Farmers have been most patient 

 in regard to this whole question of game and of the sportsman, 

 I)ut judging from the increase in posted land that patience is 

 becoming exliausted. One thing that the sportsmen have got to 

 understand is that if there is going to be a continuation of good 

 feeling between them and the landowners, the sportsmen must 

 respect the landowners' rights, and if these rights are not re- 

 spected the conflict which is bound to follow is going to drive 

 the sportsmen out of most of the land in the State. The bill 

 asked for was not unreasonable and only shifted the season along 

 so that very little of the open season came while crops were in 

 the fields. It also gave the sportsmen one holiday during the 

 open season, and apparently the only hardship it entailed was 

 that the woodcock flight season did not come within that of the 

 proposed open season. 



Pheasants have not been as numerous this season as last. 

 That these birds are destructive more or less to crops is true; 

 that they do a great deal of good is also true; but the damage 

 done to growing crops by sportsmen during the early part of the 

 season is great, and if the sportsmen only realized it, has 

 resulted in much land posting. 



Wild deer are not as numerous in the State as they were six 

 years ago, as the following table will show, and damage from 

 them is reported as less: — 



