172 



THE GAME BREEDER 



PROTECTING QUAIL. 



(The following article, which appeared in the Catholic Messenger, was forwarded by 

 one of our Iowa readers. — Editor.) 



The Farmers' Institute of Johnson 

 County has adopted resolutions protest- 

 ing the passage of any bills by the pres- 

 ent Legislature repealing the laws pro- 

 tecting quail. This is the first informa- 

 tion that most Iowans have received that 

 there were any laws in Iowa "protecting 

 quail." True, inspired by some inexperi- 

 enced individuals the Legislature adopted 

 a law prohibiting the shooting of quail 

 before 1922, but how this law protects 

 the quail is hard to understand. 



Suppose the Iowa Legislature, for the 

 purpose of protecting the Iowa hen, 

 should provide that no hen or its egg or 

 chick should be killed by shooting or 

 otherwise for a period of five years ; 

 would the hen be protected? We think 

 not. The incentive for protection has 

 been destroyed. The reason that the hen 

 has been protected and has been the great 

 financial asset of the State is because the 

 farmer has an interest in protecting her, 

 not by law, but by giving her shelter and 

 food and drink, and protecting her from 

 her enemies the elements. The farmer 

 gets repaid for doing the very thing that 

 he is prohibited from doing for the quail. 

 He sells all the eggs that are not needed 

 for hatching chickens for stocking the 

 aviary. He protects the hens and chick- 

 ens because there is a profit in it. Be- 

 cause quail belong to the State he has no 

 interest in them, and if he did spend his 

 time and money to protect them, the 

 State, which insists on owning them, 

 would allow some pot-hunter to reap the 

 benefit of his labor and his money. 



What anyone means l by protecting 

 quail is increasing their production, and 

 the quail is the most prolific breeder 

 known to zoo science. Quail in captivity 

 will lay as high as 60 or 70 eggs in a sea- 

 son, and if left to their natural resources 

 will hatch out a dozen or two of young 

 in a season. The male is as good a 

 brooder as the hen. 



One among a dozen lessons we learned 

 from the war was how to increase pro- 

 duction. The farmer was not raising 

 wheat enough. The reason, at the nor- 

 mal market price, other grains were 

 more profitable. So the Government 

 adopted Hoover's idea, made the raising 

 of wheat profitable, and the farmer was 

 given a guaranteed price for two years. 

 Production will be double this year what 

 it was before the war if nature be genial. 



Why not protect quail in the same 

 way? Say to each land owner in Iowa 

 build shelters for quail and provide food 

 that will carry them safely through an 

 Iowa winter — protect them from the 

 "vermin" that destroys them. The State 

 could help in this by offering a small 

 bounty on weasels, rats, stray cats, crows 

 and hawks. 



If you haven't quail, the State will fur- 

 nish you birds or eggs. In New Mexico 

 the State furnishes birds and guarantees 

 a market — and the farmer raises them in 

 captivity. Let every local game warden 

 stay a month or more at the State game 

 farm and study how to protect wild 

 birds, then he can assist the farmer and 

 aid in the production of wild game. Then 

 let the State game warden guarantee a 

 price of 50 cents or 75 cents per bird. 

 License a dealer in every community that 

 will sell birds legitimately killed under 

 rules and regulations fixed by the game 

 warden. Let the land owner own the 

 quail that he has raised or protected the 

 same as he owns hens and chickens and 

 other domestic fowls. If one quail is a 

 good insect destroyer a thousand would 

 destroy many more insects. 



If the farmer don't desire to kill his 

 quail with a hatchet, he could sell shoot- 

 ing rights to real sportsmen who would 

 live up to all regulations. The State by 

 fixing the license to shoot on uninclosed 

 or State preserves at from $5 to $10 a 

 year, would get half a million dollars to 



