

152 



THE GAME BREEDER 



GIVE THE QUAIL AND GROUSE 

 A CHANCE. 



We consented reluctantly or perhaps 

 the situation would be better stated by 

 saying that we took our medicine, when 

 the amendments proposed to reform the 

 absurd Bayne law were cut down so as 

 to only permit game breeders to breed 

 pheasants, ducks and deer. The absurd- 

 ity of only permitting breeders to look 

 after the species which least need their 

 attention and of threatening them with a 

 jail sentence if they should dare to look 

 after our splendid indigenous birds was 

 so evident that we were indignant at the 

 idea of a compromise. 



The absurd idea advanced in the orig- 

 inal bill was that all birds and even rab- 

 bits should be "protected" at all times in 

 so far as making it worth while for any 

 one to look after them was concerned. 

 The amendments which we desired 

 made it legal to look after any species 

 profitably. When the chairman of the 

 Senate Committee, Senator Franklin D. 

 Roosevelt, suggested to the writer that 

 if the breeders be permitted to breed the 

 mallards, ducks and deer, it would not 

 be long before other species could be 

 added to the list and that the compro- 

 mise would make the passage of the bill 

 easier we believed, as he did, that it 

 would not be long before the legislature 

 could be induced to give the quail, 

 grouse, wild turkeys and other desirable 

 game the same chance for a rapid in- 

 crease in numbers as was given to mal- 

 lards, black ducks, pheasants and deer. 

 The time has now arrived. 



We wish to see the laws amended so 

 as to make it legal to profitably produce 

 grouse, quail, wild turkeys and any other 

 species of game. It seems absurd to 

 think that it may take a year or two for 

 this common sense idea to prevail in 

 New York. We are pleased to observe 

 that other States already have accepted 

 the idea and that in many States it no 

 longer is a criminal offense to produce 

 any species of food on a farm. 



Our plans for the future include the 

 restoration of quail on toast, broiled teal, 

 roast wild turkey and many other desir- 

 able dishes, and we shall never cease to 

 demand, for game breeders, the right to 



produce profitably and abundantly the 

 birds which most need their attention. 



We have been willing to consent to a 

 certain amount of license and tag "fool- 

 ishness," as Mr. Talbot calls the licensing 

 of breeders and the tagging of game. 

 We insist, however, that the charge for 

 the permits should be nominal, as it is in 

 many States or nothing as it is in Massa- 

 chusetts, and that the charge for the 

 identification tags should not be more 

 than a few cents for a handful (as the 

 charge for trout tags recently was made 

 in New York) and not 5 cents for each 

 tag. As we have pointed out a reason- 

 able tagging system (the State furnish- 

 ing the tags to reputable breeders at the 

 cost of production) is in a way beneficial 

 to the breeders since it is a safeguard 

 against the theft and illegal sale of their 

 game by poachers. 



The first thing of importance on our 

 program is the amendment of the laws 

 in all States, where amendments still are 

 necessary, so as to permit the profitable 

 breeding of all species. The entire non- 

 sense in the Bayne bill should have been 

 eliminated at the time when a good part 

 of it was knocked out by the combined 

 efforts of the Hotel Men's Associations, 

 the game dealers, the game breeders and 

 a lot of good sportsmen, who worked 

 harmoniously and with some success as 

 is evidenced by the many thousands of 

 pheasants and ducks which now are 

 reared in New York and in other States 

 which copied the New York law. 



Will It Come to This? 



The days of the hunting dog are num- 

 bered. There will, no doubt, be a move- 

 ment started to wipe the hunting dog 

 off the map. Farmers who have hereto- 

 fore been driven to distraction by dogs 

 running their stock will have an oppor- 

 tunity at the next election to vote 

 against the nuisance. — Silverton Appeal 



Oregon. 



♦ — 



Wild Turkeys in the South. 



Mr. Edmond A. Mcllhenny in his ex 

 cellent book, "The Wild Turkey and Its 

 Hunting," says: "There are thousands 

 of acres in the South which once were 



