56 



THE GAME BREEDER 



T^ e Game Breeder 



Published Monthly 

 Edited by DWIGHT W. HUNTINGTON 



NEW YORK, MAY, 1919. 

 TERMS: 



10 Cents a Copy — $1.00 a year in Advance. 



Postage free to all subscribers in the United States. 

 To All ForeignCountriesand Canada, $1.25. 



The Game Conservation Society, Inc. 

 publishers, 150 nassau st., new york 



D. W. Huntington, President, 



F. R. Peixotto, Treasurer, 



J. C. Huntington, Secretary. 



E. Dayton, Advertising Manager. 

 Telephone, Beekman 3685. 



MORE LAWS. 



More laws and more litigation evi- 

 dently have been secured by the Game 

 Protection Association during the last 

 winter months. We sincerely hope that 

 the Migratory Bird Law may be de- 

 clared constitutional provided the court 

 can say that wild migratory birds not 

 owned and branded by game breeders 

 are owned by the nation and a proper 

 subject for national police regulation. 



The ample protection given to game 

 breeders by Section 12 of the law; the 

 evident intention of the Biological Sur- 

 vey to permit the trapping of wild fowl 

 for breeding purposes and the shooting 

 of big bags of game by game breeders, 

 and the sale of the abundant game as 

 food under proper regulations (which 

 in time can be made very simple), make 

 it desirable that wild fowl should be 

 governed by the national law and not by 

 the ever changing state enactments. 



It certainly is a hardship for game 

 breeders to be forced to comply with 

 two sets of laws and regulations ; to 

 have state officers and national officers, 

 both requiring the tagging and branding 

 of the food before it can be marketed, 

 and to have state officers and national 

 officers inspecting the breeding plants 

 and requiring reports of the game pro- 

 duced and sold. 



There are many thousands of game 

 breeders. Some have only a few birds. 

 In the Middle West it was a common 



sight, before the numerous laws were 

 enacted, to see a few tame green-heads, 

 or mallards, in the barnyards. ''We have 

 seen many Canada geese on the western 

 farms, and if the farmers be required to 

 pay for licenses and to tag. and brand 

 their fowls and to make -reports to the 

 state and to the nation about what they 

 are doing with a few pairs of tame 

 ducks or geese, the result will be that 

 they will eat the birds and have nothing 

 on the farms to tempt state and national 

 officers to make arrests, because breed- 

 ing fowls are "in their possession." 



When Iowa enacted a law requiring a 

 $2.00 license for game breeders, many 

 farmers who had tame mallard did not 

 apply for licenses, and it hardly seemed 

 to be good politics to arrest them be- 

 cause they had barnyard ducks before 

 the law was enacted. 



The correct way to handle the whole 

 subject is to let any farmer or other 

 land owner have' a qualified ownership 

 in the game he produces, wild or tame, 

 on his farm. The ownership practically 

 is absolute so long as the game remains 

 on the farm, since the trespass laws pre- 

 vent anyone from taking the game. The 

 ownership of game, at the common law, 

 is said to be a qualified ownership, since 

 game often departs from places where 

 it is produced abundantly, and the own- 

 ership is then lost and the game cannot 

 be followed and taken in replevin be- 

 cause it cannot be identified. The place 

 to regulate the sale of game is not on the 

 farms but in the market. Producers 

 should not be licensed and annoyed by 

 numerous laws, regulations and officers. 

 The game dealers should be licensed 

 and regulated and ample records can be 

 required from them. 



A Uniform Law for Massachusetts. 



Mr. Bailey of Danbury has prepared 

 a bill providing for a uniform fishing 

 season. The numerous laws opening 

 and closing the fishing season on various 

 ponds are wrong, of course. They are 

 the direct result of the appetite for legis- 

 lation to which often we have referred. 

 Local protective associations continually 

 run to the legislative assemblies seeking 



(Continued on page 5o.) 



