THE GAME BREEDER 



71 



bird list but before long, and while our 

 law was in the books, the turkey ceased 

 to sing because it was extinct. Natural 

 enemies and rabbit-shooters evidently 

 were over-abundant. 



An Amusing Illustration. 



Professor Pearson, secretary of the 

 National Association of Audubon So- 

 cieties, gives us, in Bird Lore, another 

 ■example of "too much steam on," in 

 Ohio. He says : 



For the past five years there has been an 

 absolute close season on quail shooting in 

 Ohio. The time set by law was about to ex- 

 pire, and the question arose, shall quail be 

 shot or shall they be protected for another 

 term of years? This Association favored con- 

 tinuing the close season for at least two, and 

 perhaps five years, and our Ohio agent, Dr. 

 Eugene Swope, began a campaign looking to 

 this end, when lo ! the farmers of the State 

 took up the fight and demanded that this bird 

 be protected for all time, and the Ohio legis- 

 lature has passed such a law ! 



Notes From Minnesota. 



Importance of Fish Culture. 



Any product bearing close relation to 

 the food supply and the cost of living, 

 should have care and attention, with a 

 view to its conservation and increase. 

 We are just beginning to realize how 

 important in this respect is that product 

 which we take freely from the waters 

 of the state. There is no article of food 

 which can be produced at so little cost 

 for capital investment, operation, dis- 

 tribution and marketing combined, as 

 fish. So closely allied is this product 

 to our agricultural resources that it may 

 be considered as a food "crop" and as 

 such compared with the products of agri- 

 culture in importance, value and cost of 

 production. — Btilletin Minnesota Game 

 and Fish Department. 



The remarks are equally applicable to 

 ■game. Prairie grouse, weighing about 

 2 pounds, can be produced in vast num- 

 bers on protected fields at very small 

 cost since they will find much of their 

 food in the fields. Quail should be a 

 big food supply, and not a vanishing 

 ganie bird. All real naturalists now 

 realize the economic importance of the 

 :game and game fish and agree that the 



markets should be kept full of these de- 

 sirable foods. 



Cost of Production. 



The Bulletin further says : 



In considering whether the production of 

 any agricultural product is economically profi- 

 table the cost of producing it is always con- 

 sidered. If the cost of production exceeds the 

 value of the product its production can not 

 be justified on economic grounds. Let us 

 consider the cost of production of fish, etc. 



The hand-rearing of pheasants is ex- 

 pensive far more so than the wild breed- 

 ing of pheasants in protected fields and 

 woods. But at present prices the breed- 

 ers find there is a good profit in pheas- 

 ants. When these birds become tre- 

 mendously plentiful as they will in a few 

 years the prices will fall rapidly in the 

 markets and many pheasants, no doubt, 

 will be sold cheaper than poultry as they 

 are in other countries. Sport will con- 

 tribute to the cost of production and the 

 sportsmen having far more birds than 

 they can use will sell them cheaply. The 

 grouse and quail bred wild, however, are 

 the cheapest and best game that can be 

 produced. Thousands of wild fowl now 

 are produced in protected marshes. 



Cats and Cat Licenses. 



The Editor of The Ladies' Home 

 Journal devotes a page to the cat prob- 

 lem, beginning thus : 



"A town council was asked, the other 

 evening, to pas;j an ordinance to^ license 

 and bell cats, and to have all non-licensed, 

 cats destroyed. The councilmen smiled: 

 then a witty (?) member cracked a joke 

 about Pussy; a still wittier member 

 cried "Meow," and the matter was 

 passed over as a joke. Nothing was 

 done except to reveal the members of 

 the town council to the communtiy as a 

 body of men who didn't know a serious 

 subject when they saw it." 



We do not object to cat license laws, 

 cat bell laws or laws prescribing the 

 times of the day and night when "pussy" 

 can walk abroad. If it becomes neces- 

 sary to have a special cat police we hope 

 a comparatively small force can do the 

 work. 



Upon one of our first visits to an 



