Department of Game Protection 



REPORT OF JOHN S. BURNHAM, CHIEF GAME PROTECTOR 



Hon. James S. Whipple, Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner: 



SIR. — I respectfully submit herewith my report on the enforcement 

 of the Forest, Fish and Game Laws of the State, for the year 1909. 

 The statistical tables which follow show a substantial increase in the 

 number of cases prosecuted. While in 1907 there were 797 actions brought, 

 and in 1908 there were 1,054, during the fiscal year covered by the present 

 report, the number has increased to 1,372, or a gain of about 30 per cent, 

 over 1908. 



A comparison with the statistics of previous years shows that the num- 

 ber of actions prosecuted has increased very materially each year since you 

 became Commissioner. There has been an increase from 375 actions 

 brought in 1904 to 1,372 in 1909, or about 365 per cent in five years. Dur- 

 ing this time the number of protectors has been increased from fifty to 

 eighty-five. These results can only have been brought about by a syste- 

 matic and business-like administration. The personnel of the protectors 

 has been improved by the weeding out of inefficient men, and a systematic 

 organization has taken place of a force which, while not wanting in good 

 material, lacked in cohesion and the proper placing of individual responsi- 

 bility. 



For the first time, this year, credit is given to the heads of the different 

 divisions for the work accomplished in their blocks. The first work of 

 the organization of the force was to assign to each protector a definite 

 territory, so that responsibility might be placed for violations occurring 

 in this territory, and the protector might also have a definite area to patrol. 

 While held accountable for the enforcement of the law in his territory, and 



358 



