THE GAME BREEDER 



173 



finance game propagation, and quail and 

 other game would be really protected. 



We would like to be shown by farmers 

 themselves that they know of any in- 

 crease of quail since the passage of the 

 law prohibiting their killing. A writer 

 in The Game Breeder, las August (1918) 

 thus stated the proposition : 



"The Game Breeder is right. Game, 

 excepting only migratory birds, must 

 have a profitable market value if it is 

 ever again to be plentiful. The farmer 

 alone can produce it and by no other 

 argument can he be persuaded. A profit- 

 able market only will not suffice, how- 

 ever. His right to the game which he has 

 produced must be protected just as fully 

 as is his right to his chickens, ducks, 

 turkeys and other domestic animals. If 

 grouse, quail and pheasants are to be 

 plentiful the farmers must provide suit- 

 able covers, supply food when needed 

 and keep down the vermin. This involves 

 labor and expense which he will not un- 

 dertake unless he knows that the birds 



he has raised are just as much his prop- 

 erty as his chickens, ducks and turkeys, 

 and that when he has produced them 

 he can sell them in the market at a profit. 

 There is no thickly populated country 

 in the world where game is plentiful ex- 

 cept where the ownership of the land- 

 owner in the game upon his lands is fully 

 recognized and the game has a market 

 value. The existing laws which prohibit 

 poaching on posted land are wholly in- 

 adequate to meet the situation. No one 

 should be permitted to shoot the farmer's 

 game without his permission, and ade- 

 quate penalty should be provided which 

 would fully protect him. If such laws 

 were enforced there would be game 

 a-plenty for every one in a few years. 

 The farmer would be benefited and so 

 would the sportsman, as shooting rights 

 could be obtained at small cost. Why not 

 go to the root of the matter and pass 

 laws that would stimulate production 

 rather than restrictive laws which dis- 

 courage it." 



NOTES FROM THE GAME BREEDERS AND PRESERVES. 



Importation of Eggs from China. 



I thought it might be of some interest 

 to your readers to know that pheasant 

 eggs have been successfully imported 

 direct from China, and while hatches 

 have not been anything to brag about, 

 we have some pretty good looking young 

 pheasants from some of these eggs. I 

 had a friend who was visiting some 

 friends near Canton, China, and while 

 there he wrote me a letter. This was in 

 March this year. He jokingly asked me 

 if I couldn't use some "Honest to God 

 pheasant eggs," and I promptly wrote 

 him to get me some and I would, stand 

 for the costs. He sent me three batches 

 of the eggs, I think the first lot was 78 

 eggs. These arrived in May and hatched 

 reasonably well. I believe I have about 

 34 birds from this lot. The next lot of 

 eggs, 56, were delayed somewhere on the 

 route, and while a few of them hatched, 

 the chicks were so weak that all but two 

 died. The last lot came in July, and it 



was pretty hot, I tell you. I was about 

 to throw them away, but we had a good 

 many setting hens at that time, so i set 

 them, but these birds were very weak and 

 I do not think I have over a dozen left, 

 but they are nice so far, although they 

 are but a week old. It has not been so 

 many years since the first Chinese pheas- 

 ants were liberated here in Oregon, and 

 they were probably the first in the United 

 States. It is a fact that most of the birds 

 in this country at the present time are 

 related considerably, and it was with this 

 in view that we undertook to import 

 these eggs. I do not think it is practical 

 to import them, but a few of us breeders 

 living here in the "Far West" are sure 

 more favorably located to do this than 

 anyone else. 



I do not think we will have any eggs 

 for sale from this stock the coming year, 

 but if we do we will advertise them in 

 The Game Breeder. 





