GAME AS A NATIONAL, RESOURCE. 9 



shipped to market in some years. The reports of the California 

 Fish and Game Commission estimate that in 1911 approximately 

 1,000,000 ducks were killed in that State; ^ and later (referring also 

 to 1911) the statement was made that " during the season three years 

 ago there were fully 250,000 wild ducks brought into the San Fran- 

 cisco market for sale." "^ Estimated at the very moderate price of 

 50 cents each, the value of the ducks offered for sale in the city of 

 San Francisco was $125,000, while the value of the total number 

 killed the same season in the State would be four times as much, or 

 $500,000. A more accurate estimate has recently been made in Min- 

 nesota, which reports the number of ducks killed in 1919 as 1,804,900, 

 and in 1920 as 1,414,889 (see p. 20). Although there is at hand no 

 definite information as to the number of waterfowl killed in many 

 States, yet enough information is available to warrant the statement 

 that in the entire United States the food value of the waterfowl taken 

 must amount annually to several millions of dollars. 



VALUE OF GAME TO THE FARMER. 



The game on the farm is of value to the owner or tenant in several 

 ways. Nearly every farm produces some game which may be hunted 

 in open season, as rabbits, quail, squirrels, or other species, and this 

 has a certain food or recreational value. Upland game birds are 

 often of more use as destroyers of weed seeds or noxious insects than 

 they are as food, but this phase of their economic value has been 

 fully discussed in other publications. 



Under favorable conditions the game on the farm may be greatly 

 increased and even produced artificially, though as yet game farming 

 has made only a beginning in the United States. Pheasants and 

 pheasant eggs have been distributed in certain States and in some 

 cases the persons receiving them have been successful in rearing the 

 birds, but comparatively little concerted effort has been made by 

 farmers to raise any large number of pheasants, either in cooperation 

 with game departments or for supplying the market. Pheasants, 

 wild turkeys, mallard ducks, black mallards, and wood ducks can be 

 reared on farms, and, commanding higher prices than poultry, might 

 l)e made even more profitable." 



Another method of utilizing the game on the farm and of making 

 it render a direct return is to sell or lease the shooting rights. Farms 

 are very generally posted, but owners and tenants do not as a rule 

 attempt to obtain a direct return by leasing the hunting privileges. 

 How A'aluable these may be under favorable circumstances is shown 



" Twenty -second Bien. Kept., for 1912, p. 22. 

 "Twenty-third Bien. Rept., for 1914, p. 15. • 



'' Directions for raising wild fowl in captivity will be furnished on application to 

 the Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



7986-^— 2i 2 



