THE GAME BREEDER 



151 



stampede and deplete the population of 

 the cities and the towns. The problem 

 of the abandoned farms will be solved to 

 a moral certainty. 



CHANCES ABOUT EVEN. 



The most enthusiastic game politician 

 will hardly claim that the State will some 

 day introduce buffaloes on the farms and 

 restore the chase as we knew it in the 

 good old days when dodging hostile 

 Sioux was part of the fun. It does not 

 seem likely that State game departments 

 ever will make elk or deer shooting or 

 the coursing of antelope with flee% 

 hounds as good as the sport we once en- 

 joyed was before the advent of agricul- 

 tural operations. Deer in fruit orchards 

 and truck gardens are not favored by 

 the farmers and even the State rabbit is 

 liable to be shot, trapped or poisoned when 

 he is found injurious to the crops. Since 

 it was evident that the farmers did not 

 seem to be aware ( that there were laws 

 requiring them not to destroy animals 

 which were observed to be harmful many 

 of the States decided that it was not 

 good politics to arrest farmers for de- 

 fending their property and promptly 

 amended the laws so as to permit them 

 to do so. 



The close tillage of many farms and 

 the draining of vast areas have put an 

 end to quail and duck shooting in many 

 localities where we once shot big bags 

 of quail and ducks. Even the advice to 

 the farmers that quail are beneficial to 

 agriculture has not induced many agri- 

 culturists to set aside covers and food 

 areas for the birds. The advice has re- 

 sulted in the posting of practically all of 

 the farms against shooters and it is 

 found to be easy to put the quail on the 

 song bird list for terms of years or for- 

 ever. 



There is about as much chance for 

 State game officers to introduce mad 

 dogs on the farms or a good lot of cats 

 in the bird stores as objects of sport as 

 there is to provide for free buffalo, deer 

 or quail shooting on the farms. 



The most intelligent State officers now 



agree with us that the best they can do 

 is to try and keep up some shooting on 

 the public lands and waters and that it 

 is wise to distribute birds and eggs to 

 those who will look after them properly 

 letting the sportsmen arrange with their 

 owners for shooting on the farms under 

 liberal game breeders' enactments. 



THE STATE AND THE GAME 

 FARMER'S GAME. 



Mr. Martin's statement that carting 

 the birds from the California state game 

 farm all over the state for exhibition 

 purposes was bad reminds us of an amus- 

 ing display in another state- some years 

 ago when an accommodating game breed- 

 er loaned a big lot of pheasants, ducks, 

 etc., which were labeled "from the state 

 game farm" and paraded about for a 

 time and then returned to their owner. 



Game breeders, both the game farm- 

 ers and the sporting breeders, are an ac- 

 commodating lot of people. Always they 

 stand ready to sell vast quantities of 

 game and game eggs (many thousands in 

 fact) to the state commissioners, and all 

 sensible game department officers now 

 realize that it is quite desirable to be 

 able to procure plenty of game and eggs 

 at attractive prices. It is quite neces- 

 sary to admit that the game and eggs do 

 not belong to the state until the bargains 

 are concluded. 



The game farmers soon will be able 

 to supply all the grouse, quail, deer, 

 pheasants, wild ducks and other game 

 that the departments can find a place 

 for. There are plenty of buffaloes. 



Many farmers will not permit the 

 state officers to turn down pheasants or 

 other game birds on their farms since 

 they are aware that the birds bring unde- 

 sirable trespassers. Many states fortu- 

 nately contain much wild land, and be- 

 fore long many of the states will have 

 public shooting and fishing parks for 

 those who are not sufficiently industrious 

 to properly look after their game and to 

 shoot it with the farmer's approval, he 

 being properly compensated for the 

 shooting and for the land planted with 

 covers and foods for the game. 



