58 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



was begun soon after the organization of the State 

 government and has proceeded toward systematic 

 regulation of sport and industrial hunting and fishing 

 to the present time. For more than half a century 

 there has been at work a very well-informed and 

 energetic Fish and Game Commission which has 

 secured new laws for the protection of species, either 

 by limiting or prohibiting, as conditions might 

 require, and by cooperating with the national authori- 

 ties in provisions for introduction, propagation and 

 distribution. The result is that such desirable ani- 

 mals as deer are reported to be increasing, although 

 as many as 15,000 male deer are killed each year. 

 Of wild ducks there is also an increasing supply 

 although an annual kill of a million ducks is reported. 

 It is not so notable that wild geese should also be 

 numerous for the annual kill is only one-tenth as 

 many. The abundance of quail is gratifying testi- 

 mony to the efficacy of a closed breeding season, for 

 this bird is multiplying in nearly every county, 

 although uncounted thousands of quail-shooters go 

 out after them as soon as the season opens and return 

 heavily laden. Of stream and lake trout, owing to 

 the maintenance of about ten hatcheries and the vast 

 numbers planted out each year (estimated to be 

 about twelve million small fry) it is possible that this 

 fish is as abundant now as when the pioneers reported 

 the streams teeming with them. 



The commercial fisheries of California are of con- 

 siderable moment, about 4000 licenses for such busi- 

 ness being annually issued. The value of the catch, 



