THE GAME BREEDER 



the future to the methods of game breed- 

 ing than to the reform of the game laws. 

 Enough States now permit and encour- 

 age the profitable breeding of game to 

 enable us to predict that America soon 

 will be the biggest game producing coun- 

 try in the world. States which continue 

 to place desirable food birds on the song 

 bird list and which rely on closed seasons 

 for terms of years, in the hope that some 

 day the game will come back, will be 

 regarded as sadly behind the times ; the 

 abundant game produced in other States 

 will pass through them to the States 

 where there is more freedom. Game de- 

 partments which arrest food producers 

 may expect to be abolished. 



The appetite for legislation still re- 

 mains abnormal in States which have 

 many game protective associations and it 

 is evident that this appetite is encour- 

 aged by those who profit by the game law 

 industry. The absurd list of new laws 

 offered annually in States like Pennsyl- 

 vania and some others has, however, at- 

 tracted the attention of some prominent 

 statesmen and it seems likely that a good 

 part of the laws introduced will not be 

 enacted and that possibly some of the 

 most backward States may soon decide 

 that the game laws do not produce satis- 

 factory sport or any food for the people. 

 They may learn the reason why they do 

 not and cannot produce good results. 

 Meantime the breeders in the free 

 States will produce a tremendous amount 

 of game and our readers will be told 

 how they do it. 



Game Law Outrages. 



We shall continue to make brief men- 

 tion of the game law outrages as they 

 may be reported by our readers or other- 

 wise. It has been well said that the way 

 to bring about the repeal of a bad law 

 is to execute or enforce it and we have 

 observed that our comemnt about the 

 arrest of people for having stock birds or 

 eggs in their possession for breeding pur- 

 poses and for selling game and eggs 

 often has brought about a change in the 

 laws. 



The Wrong State. 



A Washington warden writing to say 



that the "Oregon Outrage" reported (the 

 arrest and fining of a breeder because he 

 killed one of his golden pheasants) was 

 not an Oregon outrage but a Washing- 

 ton outrage. The officer claims that he 

 made the arrest because the owner had 

 no right under the law to kill his bird 

 and to have it mounted ; but he frankly 

 says the laws require considerable re- 

 pairs, or words to that effect. We gladly 

 credit the outrage to Washington and 

 apologize to Oregon. The young man 

 who handled the . survey containing the 

 report had a big mail before him includ- 

 ing some Oregon matters and he was 

 under the impression the breeder men- 

 tioned in a telegram to a newspaper was 

 one of our Oregon members. The news- 

 paper clipping did not say where the 

 outrage occurred. The golden pheasant 

 owned by the criminal was an aviary spe- 

 cies, not a game bird, and the laws pro- 

 tecting the vanishing game of Washing- 

 ton should not be enforced so' as to make 

 it not worth while to own aviary birds 

 which are reared and kept in aviaries by 

 their owners. It would be quite as pro- 

 per to arrest the owner of a peacock or 

 a barnyard fowl as to arrest owners of 

 aviary pheasants. In many States these 

 birds now are reared and sold as freely 

 as peacocks, parrots and canaries are, 

 and the intelligent game wardens never 

 think of interfering with the industry. 



Sed Outlook in California. 



The California state report tells us 

 few people take an interest in game 

 breeding in that state. 



This is not surprising considering the 

 attitude of the department towards the 

 new food and sport producing industry. 

 Starting with a fine of $25 for each per- 

 son who wishes to experiment (this has 

 been reduced we believe) and threaten- 

 ing such capable breeders as Miss Mary 

 Rahlman and others with $800 fines be- 

 cause they had breeding birds in pos- 

 session is a poor way to encourage game 

 breeding. The report says the experi- 

 mental game farm will be abandoned and 

 we fail to find a word about the desira- 

 bility of game breeding, its methods and 

 profits either in the report or in the 



