THE GAME BREEDER 



169 



HUNTER OR HUSBANDMAN. 



Dr. James G. Needham, 

 Professor of Entomology and Limnology, Cornell University. ^ 



Extract from an address recently delivered before an audience of farmers at the 



New York State College of Agriculture. * 



The assumption that all the wild life 

 growing upon the land belongs to all the 

 people, and that any one who can do so 

 is free to take it, is, of course, a direct 

 inheritance from the day when all the 

 game belonged to the king; when the 

 king could do no wrong. We, the people, 

 have succeeded the king. We have ac- 

 quired his rights and privileges — his right 

 to kill, his right to overrun the fields of 

 the farmer, his right to get something 

 for nothing. . . . ' 



We need now to recogTiize that the 

 day of wanton exploitation is past, and 

 that we have entered upon an era of 

 conservation during which we must live 

 on the increase of nature's products that 

 our own hands have secured for us ; no 

 longer something for nothing, but every- 

 thing for care and forethought and the 

 application of science to bettering the 

 conditions of life. 



The primary assumption should be 

 that the region where farmers live is an 

 agricultural community — not a howling 

 wilderness or a hunting preserve. 



Hunting thepe must be to satisfy the 

 human craving for sport — sport of a kind 

 that is normal to the growing up of every 

 youth, and that is a legitimate part of a 

 man's recreation. But hunting is, at best, 

 a savage sport that is pursued with dan- 

 gerous weapons ; and it should be pursued 

 in civilized society only in places set aside 

 for the purpose. The farmer should pos- 

 sess his farm in peace. The part of the 

 public that desires to hunt should have 

 proper places provided, and these places 

 should be publicly marked for hunting; 

 and peaceful farms where the wild life 

 is treasured should not have to be marked 

 against it. As there are public waters 

 stocked by the state in which ^ny one 

 may fish, so there should be public game 

 and forest preserves where one may hunt. 



The farmers want freedom from the 

 nuisance of the hunters who are merely 



raiders and economic pirates, and should 

 unite to secure it. Every man's farm 

 ;hould be his own, free from ravage by 

 hunters, free from menace by guns. All 

 its wild products should be in his own 

 keeping, subject only to his neighbor's 

 interests, rights and welfare. The farmer 

 should be free to raise on his farm any 

 kind of plant or animal without permit or 

 license from any source. Such artificial 

 barriers ought not to obstruct the path 

 of forward-looking agricultural enter- 

 prises. 



The conservation measures that ^yill 

 best secure these ends are those which 

 will protect and preserve the wild life in 

 suitable places and provide hunting for 

 the future ; for men will hunt, and many 

 of the farmers themselves desire this 

 sport. The measures already before us 

 that will go farthest toward removing the 

 hunter from the farmer's premises are 

 these : 



1. State game farms, where wild game 

 may be propagated, for distribution to 

 public and private preserves. 



2. Reserves, where the wild life may 

 be maintained — forest and game pre- 

 serves. 



There should be not only one great 

 state preserve like the Adirondack State 

 Park, but every county in the State of 

 New York should have its own smaller 

 reserve, made out of the waste land that 

 is still cheap and available. There is 

 land in every county of the State that 

 would be of far more worth if put to 

 raising timber and game. We have 

 talked much about reforestation : wc have 

 practiced it little. 



Portions of such public reserves should 

 be kept as sanctuaries, free alike from the 

 hunter, the lumberman and the engineer ; 

 and in these every wild thing, not harm- 

 ful to the public, should find a jjlacc. and 

 should be let alone. These places would 

 serve as centers of natural propagation 



