DESTRUCTION OF GAME AND GAME BIRDS. 269 



but are there not ten of the poor trappers to one of the dollar 

 men and have we not the just and reasonable side of the question? 

 D'o not our representatives know that the raw fur industry of the 

 state is of greater importance, financially, than the wheat crop of 

 the state, for which the legislature does all it can in the way of 

 appropriations to help the farmer to increase the yield of wheat? 

 Had this been shown to the assembly, would it not have passed laws 

 to protect the fur-bearers of the state, instead of bounty laws to 

 exterminate the fur-bearer, and this act at the expense of the public? 



Every dollar that is appropriated by the House of Representa- 

 tives in the way of bounty on so-called noxious animals, must 

 come from the pockets of the taxpayers, and is not a dollar saved 

 in the way of protecting the fur-bearers of the state equivalent to a 

 dollar produced from a bushel of wheat? Now, the dollar man 

 will tell us that the fox and mink are very destructive to game and 

 game birds. This, to a great extent, is a mere bugaboo, or an 

 excuse to knock out the trapper. There is little doubt but that a 

 fox occasionally kills a grouse or partridge or a rabbit. Admitting 

 this to be the case, is not a good fox or mink skin worth ten times 

 as much to the trapper as a partridge or rabbit is to the dollar 

 man? 



But that is not all, if it is the pleasure of an individual to 

 amuse himself with the traps, why should he be deprived of that 

 pleasure? It is certain that the trap will not cause any more harm 

 in the way of damage or in a cruel manner, than a dog will. While 

 the dollar man makes a plea in defense of game, it is generally 

 known that his plea is in reality in defense of his manner of 

 sporting, regardless of any desires that the poor trapper may have 

 and there are certainly but few trappers but wish to see the game 

 and game birds preserved as well as the dollar man does. 



I doubt if there is a man in the State of Pennsylvania who has 

 worked longer, or done more according to his ability, to protect and 

 preserve game than the writer has, and as to the dog, he has no 

 greater friend than the writer. As to the preservation of game and 

 game birds, I believe in preserving it in a substantial way and not 

 in a mythical manner, under the pretext of a bounty on noxious 

 animals and then pass laws that do away with the trap, the most 



