102 



THE GAME BREEDER 



after some of this closed shooting. Open 

 it up and speed it up is our motto. We 

 are pleased to observe that many, sports- 

 men are taking our advice. 



The sportsmen who open up the posted 

 farms leave the free shooting on public 

 lands and waters for those who are not 

 industrious in the matter of game sav- 

 ing. A noisy game refuge is more bene- 

 ficial than a quiet refuge, but there is 

 room enough for both. 



Sporting Breeders. 



Mr. Leopold in discussing his contro- 

 versy overlooks the fact that there are 

 thousands of game breeders who are 

 sportsmen and who deal with the game 

 farmers when they need stock birds to 

 start some good shooting. It may inter- 

 est him to know that probably there are 

 oiver an hundred (thousand; sportsmen 

 who have excellent shooting every sea- 

 son. The country is so big that we can 

 readily see how he overlooked them. 



We fail to see why he should suggest 

 that game farmers are "cranks." They 

 .go about their business in an indus- 

 trious manner and he may be interested 

 to know that a number of them will 

 take an order for 50,000 game eggs if 

 any one wants as many at one time. 

 We know of a large number whose out- 

 put will be over 25,000 next spring. 

 There is nothing cranky about any of 

 these people or about many thousands of 

 others in the game breeding industry in 

 a smaller way. The shooting game 

 breeders who deal with the game far- 

 mers are a solendid lot of sportsmen of 

 all grades of wealth (some only pay $15 

 a year for their shooting) . There is not 

 a crank in the lot ; but of course he did 

 not refer to these since he only men- 

 tioned the game farmers. We represent 

 all of these people and know them and 

 their splendid industry well. 



His review of a controversy is a re- 

 view of something which we are sure 

 does not exist. It takes two to make a 

 controversy and the game farmers are 

 not opposed to people who wish to hunt 

 only with a camera and "to preserve," 

 as he says, "at least a sample of all wild 

 life." The game farmers are actively 

 engaged in saving a very big sample of 



all species of game. They have to their 

 credit: (1) The saving of the bison or 

 buffalo. They have sold a lot of these 

 animals to zoological gardens. They 

 have sold a big herd of bison to Canada 

 because the U. S. market seemed to be 

 oversupplied. They will take an order 

 for a carload lot of bison or more at 

 any time if he will find a place to estab- 

 lish some "free shooting" at these ani- 

 mals. 



(2) The game breeders have saved 

 the antelope which rapidly were vanish- 

 ing and the State game officer of Mr. 

 Leopold's State says in the last last an- 

 nual report that a game breeder or game 

 farmer owns the largest herd of antelope 

 in existence (under a liberal game breed- 

 ers' law). Any one who wishes "a sam- 

 ple of wild life" can procure it by apply-, 

 ing to the proper game breeder. See ad- 

 vertisements in The Game Breeder. 



(3) In States which have liberal game 

 breeders' laws the game breeders have 

 saved the quail and keep these birds so 

 abundant that it is safe to shoot large 

 numbers every year. The owners of the 

 quail are generous and will sell or even 

 give away quail where the laws permit 

 them to do so. The Game Conservation 

 Society has given away quail of several 

 species to people who wrote common 

 sense articles describing how they saved 

 the game. 



(4) The game breeders have saved 

 large numbers of prairie grouse, sharp- 

 tailed grouse and ruffed grouse. They 

 will sell some of -their birds and give 

 some away as soon as the shipping facili- 

 ties are free and it becomes legal to make 

 these birds plentiful as it now is to make 

 pheasants plentiful. 



(5) The game breeders already have 

 made the United States the biggest 

 pheasant producing country in the world. 

 There are more pheasants in the United 

 States than there are in China where the 

 breeding stock for pheasants was pro- 

 cured, both for England and the United 

 States. A little reading notice in The 

 Game Breeder stating that the game 

 warden of Pennsylvania wanted pheas- 

 ant eggs brought him several thousand 

 eggs late in the season after many hun- 

 dreds of thousands had been sold. 



