THE GAME BREEDER 



Deer in Vermont. 



Deer are so plentiful in some parts 

 of Vermont that during the recent Wiz- 

 ard weather and deep snow there the 

 farmers opened their barn doors and 

 yards to them and provided them with 

 rations of crushed apples. Venison is 

 easier and cheaper to produce than beef, 

 and it is worth twice as much as beef 

 in the New York market. Yet what 

 object is there in /producing it when 

 there is a law forbidding the farmers 

 of Vermont from selling it in the New 

 York market? Who would care to rear 

 chickens or swine or sheep, or anything 

 else on the farm, if it were unlawful to 

 sell it? But better times are coming for 

 those who want to produce venison and 

 for those who want to purchase it. There 

 is nothing in the world that so serves 

 to make a thing scarce as not to be able 

 to sell it, and nothing that tends to 

 make it so plentiful as to be able to sell 

 it for a good price. It is due solely to 

 the mandate of a statute that deer are 

 now roaming in large numbers in Ver- 

 mont, and it is due solely to a law that 

 the State is unable to profit by it. 



Returns From California. 



In a personal letter the executive of- 

 ficer of the California Fish and Game 

 Commission says the "Commission is 

 strongly in favor of breeding game in 

 large numbers. The commission has ex- 

 pended approximately $75,000 in the ef- 

 fort to make game breeding an industry 

 of the State and is doing and will do 

 nothing to hamper the operations of le- 

 gitimate breeders, no matter how small 

 or how large they may be. We have 

 given to such breeders and have sold 

 them at far less than cost, several thou- 

 sand dollars worth of pheasants and 

 other birds, to be |used for breeding 

 stock. In fact, if there is anything that 

 the Commission should and could do to 

 aid the game breeders of California, that 

 thing either has been done already or 

 will be done the moment the need and 

 the remedy is called to our attention." 

 And the reward for this effort and ex- 

 pense shall come later — "some thirtyfold, 

 some sixtyfold and some an hundred- 

 fold." 



Much in a Name. 



There is a daily paper in Council 

 Bluffs, Iowa, which is called "The Non- 

 pareil," and to the request of State Game 

 Warden Hinshaw that Iowa have a 

 game farm to encourage and teach game 

 breeding as an industry, this six point 

 newspaper responds that such an idea 

 is a "pipe dream." If it would do any 

 good we might refer this Rip Van Win- 

 kle editor to what is being done to make 

 game breeding a profitable industry in 

 many other states. But he is so far in 

 the rear of the run of progress that he 

 can't hear the music of the band wagon. 



Who is the "Moloch?" 



The opposition of game breeders and 

 wardens of New York State to the im- 

 portation of game bred in other states 

 has such a slender foundation of reason 

 that it can scarcely be very strong nu- 

 merically. As well oppose the importa- 

 tion of potatoes or beef from other 

 states. It has been hinted that if game 

 from other states be brought to New 

 York City it will all be gobbled up by 

 a certain "Moloch" just as were the first- 

 born of the Ammonites of old. If there 

 is any truth in this then it were better 

 to get rid of the Moloch and let the 

 game come in. The injury of many for 

 the benefit of a few is out of date. 

 This is the 20th century and not B. C. 

 times. "Have a heart." 



A Hard New Jersey Winter. 



It has been an unusually severe winter 

 for wild birds in New Jersey, not so 

 much because of the snow and sleet as 

 because there was only a meager food 

 supply under the best weather condi- 

 tions. 



But a concerted movement for feeding 

 them would easily obviate their distress. 

 Farmers feed their chickens 365 days of 

 the year. It is rare that wild birds need 

 be fed more than a dozen times a year 

 and except in abnormal winter weather 

 they need not be fed at all. A country 

 without birds is like an abandoned, rot- 

 ting and dilapidated dwelling, unfit for 

 human habitation. 



