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: MONTANA FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 25 Z 



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of them are being organized under the able leadership of the efficient 

 secretary of the State Sportmen's Association. The sportsmen are 

 everywhere helping in the work of propagating more fish by assisting 

 in distributing the .fry. - They are helping in the propagation of game 

 by destroying the predatory animals and birds that prey upon the 

 game. They are helping in the propagation of both fish and game by 

 assisting their game wardens in cutting out violations of the laws 

 enacted to protect fish and game. All of this spells but one thing, 

 more fish and more game. 



In Montana with her hundreds of square miles of giant forests, 

 rugged mountains, sheltered valleys, rolling prairies, hundreds of deep 

 cold crystal lakes, and thousands of miles of the finest fishing water 

 in any country, is the finest habitat in the world for fish and game, 

 and the encouraging feature of it to the sportsman, is that many of 

 these vast spaces will never be fit for any other purpose. 



With the brood stock we still have, and that which we can easily 

 acquire, with which to stock this habitat, we can have a future supply 

 of fish and game and make it all our heart's desire, if we will simply 

 take care of it as we should, and give it a fair chance. 



But if our future supply of fish and game is to be all we want it 

 to be, we will have to see to it that it is given a fair deal — in fact a 

 fairer deal than it has had in the past. The greatest trouble with 

 our present supply of fish and game is that we have never given it 

 a square deal. 



Our supply of fish will not increase so long as we have men who 

 think it is their right to catch them when they are nearly bursting 

 with spawn; our supply of deer can never increase so long as we 

 have in this state, men so mean as to kill mother deer with unborn 

 fawn within them; nor will our supply of ducks and game birds 

 ever increase, so long as we can find men who insist upon killing 

 them the year around, for, with today's great army of sportsmen in 

 the field, neither the fish nor the game can survive the results of the 

 legitimate hunting and fishing and that which is illegitimate as well. 



Continued violations of our fish and game laws can ultimately 

 mean but one thing, to-wit: No fish and no game. 



But conditions are getting better right along, thanks to the ac- 

 tivity of both sportsmen and game wardens. The standards of sports- 

 manship have improved several hundred per cent in the last five years. 

 There are fewer game violations now than ever before, and a greater 

 majority of those who do violate the law are being apprehended, be- 

 cause real sportsmen no longer wink at game violations, even though 

 committed by their best friends. They realize that if their sport is 

 to continue, these things must stop. They are willing to help their 

 game wardens in securing convictions by giving information which 

 leads to the arrest and conviction of violators. And this is as it should 

 be. Real sportsmen should have such a zealous regard for their sport 

 and the continuation of it, as to practically enforce the game laws 

 themselves. 



But our wild life is never going to be wholly protected by law 

 alone. The laws enacted for fish and game protection, the alertness 

 and watchfulness of game officials, your money spent for these pur- 

 poses will be largely in vain, unless we as sportsmen, create in the 

 hearts and minds of men, a realization of the real necessity for fish 

 and game protection. But once we create in the mind of those who 



