Wild Ducks in Relation to Rice Culture 47 



.a hold on the ground as to require the burning of whole fields to eradicate it. 

 In any case the amount of red rice that is found mixed with the rest after thresh- 

 ing has a great deal to do with the price received, hence the services of the ducks 

 are worth many thousands of dollars annually to the rice farmers. 



Wild ducks, particularly Mallards, are also useful to the planter by destroying 

 crayfish and the }'oung of snakes, both of which, particularly the crayfish, burrow 

 in and thus injure the levees making continual repairs necessary. 



Mr. Brewster, of the Bureau of the Biological Survey, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture writes that in ordinary years the rice crop is harvested and 

 out of the way before the water-fowl arrive there in the fall. Occasionally a back- 

 ward season delays harvesting and allows the wild fowl to arrive before it is com- 

 plete; but the good they do in other years by destroying the red rice far more than 

 compensates for the harm done in the exceptional years. 



He states that men who have been engaged in market hunting near High 

 Island, Texas, for fifteen years assure him that the number of ducks of all varie- 

 ties, except perhaps the teal, have decreased fully 50 per cent. Where ducks 

 have decreased so markedly in numbers in such a brief period the present laws 

 particularly the bag limit should be kept on the statute books and the law should 

 be rigidly enforced. 



The game laws of Texas do not yet give wild fowl adequate protection. Spring 

 shooting, now forbidden by law in many states is not prohibited here. The annul- 

 ment of the present bag limit and the restrictions on the sale of game would result 

 in the ultimate destruction of this bounteous annual food supply — this natural 

 asset of the great state of Texas. 



CRAYFISH. INJURES DIKES AND LEVEES. 

 Eaten freelv bv Wild Ducks 



