368 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



of land are everywhere being set aside where no hunting whatever is per- 

 mitted, and where game and birds have safe breeding grounds, and from 

 which the increase finds its way over neighboring lands where hunting is 

 permitted. 



The future apparently offers no better practical plan for furnishing 

 shooting for States such as New York, where private preserves are not 

 likely to be general, for in no other way can the breeding supply be so well 

 conserved. 



Such refuges would furnish admirable places for stocking with birds 

 from the State game farm. 



Public spirited persons in various parts of the State have already 

 offered tracts of land to be used as game refuges. There is, however, at. 

 the present time, no specific law under which such tracts may be dedicated. 

 It appears to me that the matter might suitably be cared for by the passage 

 of a law similar to section 164, which gives the Commissioner the power 

 to close for a period of years streams stocked with State fish, upon the 

 request of a majority of the town board of any town. Much additional 

 work would devolve upon the game protective force, but it is reasonable 

 to believe that public sentiment could be counted upon in support 

 of this form of protection, and the day is certainly not far distant 

 when there will be no game over large areas unless some such plan is put in 

 operation. 



Rating of Divisions 



No tabulated statement can give an absolutely fair valuation of the 

 results accomplished by the Divisions considered relatively or otherwise. 

 The Adirondack Divisions, for example, were called upon to do a great 

 deal of work for the Forestry Department to the exclusion of their other 

 business. The looking after tree lopping operations occupied time which 

 might otherwise have been used in working up violations of the Fish and 

 Game Laws. As a matter of fact if all their time could have been used in 

 fish and game matters as it was used by the men in the other divisions, the 

 Adirondack protectors would stand above some of the divisions now lead- 

 ing them. 



