T¥. Game Breeder 



Published Monthly. Entered as second-class matter. Juljr g, igts, at the Post^OfRce, New Yorki'City, 



New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



VOLUME XII 



NOVEMBER, 19 J 7 



SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



NUMBER 2 



North Carolina. 



Mr. R. E. Parker, of the Raleigh, N. 

 C, Audubon Society, says his State is 

 one of the best game territories in the 

 East or South. ' 'Although this State is 

 the camping ground of many sportsmen 

 during the game season, neither the State 

 nor any, county of the State has ever re- 

 ceived financial compensation commen- 

 surate with the amount of service ren- 

 dered to sportsmen. This is an evidence 

 that we have never had proper game leg- 

 islation." 



There can be no doubt that many 

 thousands of dollars are expended every 

 year in North Carolina because it is a 

 good game State. There can be no doubt 

 that many hundreds of thousancfs of dol- 

 lars easily could be attracted to the State ; 

 that the value of the farms could be tre- 

 mendously increased and that the State 

 might furnish a vast amount of game 

 for the people to eat. We agree with 

 Mr. Parker that the State might have 

 some "proper game legislation." Pos- 

 sibly we differ as to what would be 

 proper. 



What Is Proper. 



The reason why thousands of dollars 

 are expended every year by visiting 

 sportsmen in North Carolina is that they 

 can shoot without too much interference. 

 Recently the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies succeeded in putting 

 the quail, properly called partridge in the 

 South, on the song bird list and the 

 shooting is prohibited forever.* We hope 

 Mr. Parker does not think this would be 

 the "proper caper" for North Carolina. 

 Many game laws may well be considered 



" as capers, freaks or "fool laws," as the 

 newspapers often term them. 



In one county m North Carolina, 

 where we found the partridges tremen- 

 dously abundant, about 200,000 acres 

 made up of many small farms, are ex- 

 empt from taxation (State, city, county, 

 school) . The partridge. pays all the taxes 

 on the lands and all the taxes on the 

 buildings. 



If the legislature of North Carolina 

 should decide that it is "proper legisla- 

 tion" to place the quail on the song bird 

 list and to prohibit the shooting and the 

 eating of this excellent food bird, the 

 result would be that many small farmers 

 would resume the payment of taxes and 

 we think it likely the county would ac- 

 quire a new representative in the general 

 assembly at Raleigh. 



A Variety of Game Laws. 



Mr. Parker advises us that his State 

 has a great variety of game laws. It 

 always has had a great variety. Some 

 years the crop of new enactments has 

 been nearly an hundred, each law creating 

 a lot of new crimes, no doubt, which are 

 unknown in all civilized countries which 

 have game in abundance in the markets. 



We have, Mr. Parker says, a system 

 of local and conflicting bird and game 

 laws that render effective protection im- 

 possible. We are not quite sure what 

 Mr. Parker means by "effective protec- 

 tion." If this refers to the practical pro- 

 hibition of shooting and eating game 

 which has been made "effective" in other 

 States, we are inclined to think the sports- 

 men and the farmers are better off in 

 North Carolina than they are where the 



