T h * Game Breeder 



Published Monthly. Entered as second-class matter, July g, 1915, at the Post Office, New YorkJCity, 



New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



VOLUME IX 



SEPTEMBER, W6 

 SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



NUMBER 6 



A Good Montana Resolution. 



One of our Montana members sends 

 a clipping, from the Havre Plain 

 Dealer, relating the action of the Mon- 

 tana Game and Fish Commission which 

 well illustrates an old saying of The 

 Game Breeder: "Good game laws like 

 bad ones are catching: One State after 

 another catches them." It is interesting 

 to observe how one game department 

 after another decides that it is a good 

 plan to make the commission of eco- 

 nomic importance to all of the people 

 and to see that it represents them all, 

 and that everyone can have plenty of 

 game to eat. Too many departments 

 have been conducted as governmental 

 side shows in the interest of sportsmen 

 alone, who by antagonizing the farmers 

 and other land owners have made it an 

 easy matter for sentimentalists to put 

 an end to dove shooting, quail shoot- 

 ing* grouse shooting and in many States 

 to the shooting of other species — wood- 

 cock, upland plover, etc., etc. The reso- 

 lution prepared by Commissioner M. I. 

 Baldwin, of Kalispell, says "that the 

 game and fish laws of this State should 

 be so amended as to legitimatize the 

 propagation of game and fish by private 

 enterprise." 



The Preamble. 



The Plain Dealer, under the heading, 

 "The State Board Would Encourage 

 Private Propagation," quotes the State 

 Game and Fish Commission as follows: 



"The game and fish of Montana are assets 

 of great value to the people, hence the propa- 

 gation of game and fish of desirable kinds 

 should be encouraged by the laws of our State. 

 The right of citizens to engage in the business 

 of propagating game, fish and fur-bearing 

 animals should be recognized as lawful, and 



calculated to increase the game and fish supply 

 of the State, and that when such game and 

 fish are propagated by private enterprise 

 within private inclosure, the right to sell and 

 dispose of such game and fish under reason- 

 able regulations at all times should be per- 

 mitted, the same as other privately owned live 

 stock. 



"Therefore, it is moved as the sense of the 

 Game and Fish Commission that the game and 

 fish laws of this State should be so amended 

 as to legitimatize the propagation of game and 

 fish by private enterprise." 



Opposed to Spring Shooting. 



The Montana commission voicing its 

 opposition to the spring shooting of 

 water fowl, adopted the following: 



"Whereas the game laws of Montana make 

 it unlawful and a misdemeanor to kill water 

 fowl between the first day of January and the 

 first day of September of each year, thereby 

 abolishing spring shooting of such game, this 

 commission clearly recognizes the wisdom of 

 laws that protect such water fowl during the 

 mating and brooding season, and that such 

 laws are beneficial and do much to conserve 

 such game for the use and benefit of all in- 

 telligent and fair-minded sportsmen, but we 

 view with alarm any legislation, whether Fed- 

 eral or of sister States that may restore spring 

 shooting in such State or States and deplore 

 any action or steps that be taken by so-called 

 sportsmen in such behalf in any of said States."' 



"Resolved by the Montana Game and Fish 

 Commission that the reasonable protection of 

 water fowl, so that American sportsmen may 

 have a fair full season of shooting demands 

 the abolishtnent of spring shooting in each 

 and every State in the Union." 



Montana has an excellent Game and 

 Fish Commission. The members of the 

 commission are E. P. Mathewson of 

 Anaconda, W. M. Bickford of Missoula 

 and M. D. Baldwin of Kalispell. J. L. 

 DeHart, State game warden, is the sec- 

 retary. 



It is to be hoped that the commission 

 may be retained in office until the State 

 is made one of the biggest game produc- 



