THE GAME BREEDER 



71 



game will overflow from such places and 

 tend to restock the State. -Seeds are 

 given by the government to those who 

 will plant them. The department should 

 represent all of the people and should 

 see that game is produced for them to 

 eat.. 



We cannot answer all of the questions 

 asked but we believe the State game of- 

 ficers see the importance- of encouraging 

 game breeding: that they will help to 

 have the law made right. We shall be 

 glad to help plan a 1 campaign in Califor- 

 nia such as has resulted in much good 

 in other States. The best game officers 

 do not interfere with or prevent the pro- 

 duction of game. 



We understand -that the "otherwise 

 than by shooting nonsense" occurs in the 

 California law. This absurdity made its 

 first appearance in New York which has 

 set numerous fashions of nonsense. It 

 was knocked out the first year in so far 

 as pheasants are concerned. The next 

 year the law was amended so as to per- 

 mit the owner to shoot his ducks. It is 

 likely that over five thousand birds will be 

 shot this year at some of the shoots. The 

 pheasants and ducks are now sold at 

 godd prices in the New York market's. 

 Pheasant and' duck breeding and shoot- 

 ing has been put on a safe basis, the 

 owners of the game make their own bag 

 limits and season limits and sell large 

 quantities of game for the people to eat. 

 We have just opened the New York 

 market to the breeders in other States 

 and soon it will be full of pheasants and 

 ducks during long open seasons. 



The Game Conservation Society will 

 in the future conduct a vigorous cam- 

 paign in the interest of <~ur native quail 

 and grouse. Tbese need the breeders at- 

 tention most. In some States it is legal 

 to produce and sell them. We exoect 

 in a verv few years to have the markets 

 full of them and the sportsman who can- 

 not find a place to shoot will surely be 

 a blind one when game is abundant and 

 cheap. 



Lonely Arizona. 



Arizona has the distinction of being 

 one of the' few States, if not the only 

 one, in the Union without any commer- 



cial' or even sporting game breeders. 

 Arizona, however, has a very small pop- 

 ulation and plenty of the wild foods to 

 go round, Tt would be a good State for 

 a few commercial quail farms. The land 

 is cheap, the climate is' suitable and at 

 one time the Gambell's quail was' tremen- 

 dously abundant. 



G. M. Willard, the State game warden 

 writes : "Aside from some experimental 

 work in pheasant culture, being carried 

 on by this department on a small scale, 

 there is ho one in the State engaged in 

 the propagation of game birds or animals 

 either for -sport or profit." 



Quail With an Awful Stomach. 



One of our readers, a Southern game- 

 keeper, says in sending a clipping from 

 a Baltimore paper : , "This quail must 

 have had an awful stomach:; I guess if 

 all the insects was put together they 

 would weigh about-a half pound." Mr. 

 Hansen, State game warden of Tennes- 

 see, is quoted in the clipping as present- 

 ing, "many examples of work done by 

 the commoner varieties of birds; his 

 analysis of a meal found in the stomach 

 of a single quail is as interesting as any. 

 This one high-liver had stored away 

 2,326 plant lice, 568 mosquitoes, 100 po- 

 tato bugs, 100 chinch bugs, 39 grasshop- 

 pers, 12 squash bugs, 12 cut worms, 12 

 army worms and 8 white grubs." We 

 often wonder that the game politician 

 when discussing natural history should 

 stop at scores and hundreds of bugs. 

 Why not make it thousands of each kind 

 instead of exactly 12 squash bugs, 12 cut 

 worms and 12 army worms ? The want 

 of a few facts never should be permitted 

 to interfere with a good story when a 

 political department is exploited for the 

 benefit of the farmers who often realiy 

 know something about the real habits of 

 birds. 



Brer Fox in Kentucky. 



Kentucky has a new law protecting 

 fur-bearing animals, including the fox. 

 The law wisely provides that farmers 

 may kill the fox and others at any time 

 on his own premises if they be found in- 

 jurious. Game farmers will no doubt 



