THE GAME BREEDER 



173 



THE GAME AND THE FARMER. 



By the Editor. 



A few years ago Professor L. H. 

 Bailey, director of the State College of 

 Agriculture, Cornell University,, N. Y., 

 in a letter to the editor of The Game 

 Breeder, said : . . 



"Looking at the subject from the outside 

 it has appeared to me for years that the most 

 unsatisfactory, chaotic and uncorrelated of all 

 laws relating to the open country are those 

 that have to do with game. I have been more 

 or less in touch with our own State Legis- 

 lature on other business for some years, knd 

 I have always been impressed with the in- 

 adequacy of the kind of game legislation that 

 is nearly always on foot. If you can bring 

 some system out of the game law matter you 

 will render a great service. The sportsman 

 is ordinarily set over against the farmer. The ' 

 two are realy antagonistic. I think the only 

 real solution is in some way to bring about 

 a community of interests between the two', or 

 at least to eliminate the antagonism. In other 

 words. I think that the farming interests must 

 be distinctly consulted in the game laws, if 

 we are to have game laws that will serve the 

 interests of the people and which will stand 

 the test of a reasonable length of time. * * * 

 I am sure that your fundamental idea that the 

 farming interests should be considered in 

 game protection laws is ^ound." 



Later Professor Bailey asked us to 

 write an article on the game laws for his 

 Encyclopedia of Agriculture, which we 

 did. 



The influence of Professor Bailey and 

 many other prominent men who have 

 looked at the subject not only "from the 

 outside" (Professor Bailey in his letter 

 said he was not a sportsman) but also 

 from the inside, has resulted in the suc- 

 cess of what is popularly known as the 

 "more game" movement advocated by 

 The Game Breeder and calling for a prac- 

 tic?l and intelligent handling of the game 

 and the bringing about of the conimu::ity 

 of interests between the farmer and the 

 sportsman. 



We believed that the best way to han- 

 dle the subject was to encourage amend- 

 ments to the laws intended to promote 

 game breeding on the farms for profit as 

 well as for sport. All of the naturalists 

 quickly endorsed our idea, that the game 

 must continue to vanish, no matter how 

 many laws we made for its protection 



provided shooting be permitted and no 

 game breeding be encouraged,, since 

 shooting, unduly, is an additional and 

 fatal check to the increase of every spe- 

 cies when it is not properly looked after. 

 All species have many natural enemies 

 and all at certain periods are decimated 

 by climate ; and as civilization increases 

 there are losses due to many other causes; 

 prominent among these are fires, farm 

 machinery, telegraph and telephone wires,, 

 fences, the loss of proper covers and 

 foods, the destruction by dogs, cats and 

 rats. 



Many prominent men have written us- 

 discussing various phases of the subject. 

 All are in harmony with our ftindamental 

 idea that thfe farming interests must be 

 considered. All, without exception, have 

 endorsed the idea that the way quickly to 

 make game abundant and keep it so is tO' 

 commercialize it. 



The farmer cannot be expected to giv^ 

 his time and his money to the production 

 of a game crop so long as the results of 

 such industry surely will be the attracting 

 of a horde of licensed trespassers who 

 will shoot up his place and too often will 

 injure and destroy farm property. 



Sportsmen who deal fairly with the 

 farmers, paying shooting rentals and for 

 any land planted especially for the game, 

 easily have made the game abundant and 

 they keep it so by controlling some of its 

 worst natural enemies and by proper pro- 

 tection and feeding in winter. Clubs with 

 small dues -should sell some of their 

 abundant game to help pay the cost of 

 production. 



Under amendments to the laws favorecf 

 by The Game I'reeder there are many 

 clubs which have an abundance of pheas- 

 ants, ducks and deer; some have quail 

 and grouse ; there are many game fann- 

 ers who sell thousands of birds and eggs 

 every season. The farmer's interests 

 have not been properly looked after, 

 however, in many States, because, absurd 

 as it may seem, the laws do not permit 

 the profitable increase of the best birds 



