REPORT OP THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 143 



seemed to liave attained souud enough fonndation to warrant establish- 

 ment of a big hatchery to anticipate demands of the future, and 

 broadening of the field-patrol activities by appointment of deputies in 

 every county. The effect of these changes of policy was so immediate 

 and so palpable that credit was freely given to conservation for the 

 results attained. So today, sportsmen in the south stand squarely 

 behind the plan, and violators find themselves arrayed against a quiet 

 but determined public sentiment which shows in numerous prosecutions 

 and stiff fines to chronic violators. Favorable breeding seasons played 

 a strong part in bringing about better game conditions ; but no breeding 

 season is favorable unless the gun be kept from the fields. It may 

 now be said that a breeding stock of game has been developed which, 

 with the care it is sure to receive, can weather any demands likely to be 

 made upon it under the law even by the expected increase in the army 

 of hunting licensees taking advantage of it each year. The supply is 

 here; regulating the annual drain to the annual increase is now the 

 problem. 



Fish propagation work in the south has been more a matter of dis- 

 tribution than of rearing, but Bear Valley Hatchery has had two good 

 years, albeit expensive in unit cost per thousand of product as judged 

 by the state standard for fishcultural efforts. The May first trout- 

 opening was one of the wisest laws ever passed to benefit fishing in the 

 south. It already has justified the delay on Bear Lake alone. The 

 value of protecting '.'spawners" through April is no longer questioned 

 even by those who at first fought it bitterly there. 



In the game fields, aided by the delayed opening of the rabbit season, 

 the potential presence of deputies has resulted in the best two summers 

 the breeding birds have ever enjoyed. The rabbit law was not so mucli 

 intended to protect rabbits, which are a pest, as it was to deprive the 

 violator of any legal color of right to be afield with a gun in the nesting 

 season. That it has done, and to it in great measure may the present 

 heavy head of quail and doves be credited. Considerable of the opposi- 

 tion to the rabbit protective measures has died out among large ranchers 

 who undeniably do suffer sorely from the depredations of these animals, 

 entirely because these men of broad vision have themselves seen the 

 benefits of excluding the fire-starting, fence-cutting type of violator 

 from their lands by removing from him the chance to cover his depre- 

 dation by the excuse of benefiting them through decreasing their rabbits. 

 Many a ranch owner wishes to give the true sportsman every oppor- 

 tunity to enjoy his game; and some are learning that between the 

 sportsman and the summer violator lies a gulf like the sea. For 

 he who respects not the law of the state will not respect the rights 

 of his fellowman, and he it is who usually is careless with all 

 other of the relations of life. Possibly nowhere in the state has the 



