14 



THE GAME BREEDER 



that the turkeys will cost very little to 

 raise and will sell for $20 each, and that 

 thousands of quail easily can be produced 

 on the same ground worth $24 per dozen. 

 Under proper laws permitting and en- 

 couraging food production and sport the 

 abandoned plantations easily can be made 

 to yield an annual revenue larger than 

 some of them can be bought for to-day. 

 But no one will engage in the industry 

 so long as the laws prohibit the producer 

 from shooting his game or marketing it 

 alive and dead. New York alone will 

 send hundreds of thousands of dollars 

 annually to the owners of these aban- 

 doned and worthless plantations as soon 

 as the laws are made right and the State 

 game departments encourage the owners 

 to produce the most profitable crop which 

 can be produced on such places. 



On some of the North Carolina pre- 

 serves, where thousands of quail are 

 raised and shot every year many wild 

 turkeys breed in a wild state. The 

 writer saw one nesting by a stump in 

 a field where a farmer was plowing 

 and he left a lot of grass and stubble 

 about the stump because it paid to do 

 so. The sportsman who produced the 



game paid all the farmers taxes on lands 

 and buildings and often something extra 

 for good measure. A skilled gamekeeper 

 controlled the enemies of the turkeys and 

 other game and also saved the farmer's 

 chickens from the hawks and other ver- 

 min. 



As soon as the laws are made right in 

 the South there will be many game 

 ranches where the game will be worth 

 more than the land now is ; there will be 

 many preserves where game is produced 

 for sport and we predict there will be 

 many resorts where sportsmen can go 

 and find good shooting and comfortable 

 quarters. It seems absurd to keep on 

 making laws which cannot possibly save 

 the upland game if no one looks after it 

 properly, especially if such laws destroy 

 the value of the plantations referred to 

 by Mr. Mcllhenny. 



There is plenty of room in our vast 

 country for every one who wishes to do 

 so to have game and those who cannot 

 afford to have game without selling some 

 of it should be encouraged to produce 

 the food and sell it to those who like to 

 eat game. 



BREEDING WILD FOWL. 



By D. W. Huntington. 



Readers of The Game Breeder know 

 how difficult and, I may add, how dan- 

 gerous it was a few years ago to pro- 

 cure wild fowl for breeding purposes. 

 The protective laws, intended to save the 

 vanishing game from extinction, were 

 executed against those who wished to 

 secure breeding stock and eggs in order 

 to restore the birds to places where they 

 no longer occurred and to make them 

 and keep them plentiful for sport and 

 for food. Numerous arrests were made 

 and heavy fines were imposed on all who 

 traped wild clucks and other fowl for 

 breeding purposes and a promising food 

 and sport producing industry was pre- 

 vented. The Game Breeder by giving 

 publicity to outrageous arrests made it 

 easy to have the laws amended. 



When I first became interested in wild 

 duck breeding I purchased my eggs and 

 ducks in England. Unfortunately at this 

 time the English game farmers had been 

 infusing domestic blood with the idea 

 that they could produce a duck which 

 was easier to pen and manage and they 

 thought the larger size of the birds would 

 appeal to their patrons. 



The result was that they produced 

 many ducks which were not strong 

 enough on the wing to provide sport and 

 which often refused to fly. 



For the most part the wild ducks 

 which were obtained by many of the 

 shooting clubs in America came from 

 places which had procured their stock 

 birds and eggs in England. The Ruther- 

 ford Stuyvestant preserves at Allamuchy, 



