THE GAME BREEDER 



103 



profitably will amend their laws this win- 

 ter without doubt. 



Game Refuges in Ohio. 



Our readers will remember that when 

 it was proposed to create quiet refuges 

 for quail and other game birds in Ohio 

 we suggested they hardly were necessary 

 for two reasons : first, because the entire 

 State of Ohio was a refuge, no shooting 

 being permitted in so far as the chief 

 game bird, the quail, was concerned, and 

 it seemed evident if there was anything 

 in the usually accepted idea that "the 

 greater includes the less" it was hardly 

 necessary to set aside small areas where 

 quail shooting should be prohibited in 

 Ohio. We also suggested that since prac- 

 tically all of the farms were posted 

 against shooting it would not help mat- 

 ters much to designate some of them as 

 quiet refuges. We have, of course, a 

 little prejudice in favor of sport because 

 the sportsmen are the best customers of 

 our game breeding advertisers and to be 

 perfectly frank we like to shoot a few 

 quail ourselves as we do on Long Island, 

 N. Y., where it is not a crime to have 

 quail or shoot them. 



We are pleased to observe that our 

 advice about game in Ohio has been 

 heeded and that the idea of quiet refuges 

 has been abandoned. 



A New Stunt. 



We are now informed that a new 

 refuge plan has been proposed which 

 promises to be more noisy and on this 

 account more interesting to shooters. 

 Briefly outlined from a newspaper clip- 

 ping sent to The Game Breeder, the new 

 plan contemplates the leasing of from 

 3,000 to 5,000 acres of properly located 

 lands in each county through various 

 sportsmen's organizations and the estab- 

 lishing of preserves or sanctuaries 

 "where especially ring-necked pheasants 

 can be raised and when produced in suf- 

 ficient" abundance permitted to spread 

 around the surrounding territory." 



Why the game birds should be "espe- 

 cially ring-necked" is not made plain in 

 the clipping. The quail is Ohio's best 

 game bird. 



The Farmers Interest. 



The farmers, we are told, will be asked 

 to set aside these tracts for the purpose, 

 the land being cultivated wherever pos- 

 sible as at present and a patrol officer 

 to be established on the land to see that 

 there is no illegal shooting or other un- 

 lawful acts. The Governor of the state 

 is said to be enthusiastic about the per- 

 formance. 



We shall observe the new refuge plan 

 in Ohio with interest. As we understand 

 the matter the shooting license is to re- 

 main at $1.00. We are not told just 

 what the bag limit is to be, but placing 

 it at six birds per season, this would 

 indicate that a "patrol officer" is ex- 

 pected to produce six ring-necks for a 

 dollar. Possibly our bag limit has been 

 placed too high, but if the patrol officer 

 produces one pheasant for each gun he 

 will furnish much cheaper pheasants 

 than are produced on any state or com- 

 mercial game farms. Ohio is a big state 

 and there are hundreds of commercial 

 breeders within its boundaries. As we 

 have said often, we are in favor of 

 everything, public shooting on public 

 areas, private shooting on farms where 

 the farmers permit it, game farms, game 

 ranches, game clubs, game preserves, 

 everything and anything which will re- 

 sult in more game and fewer game laws. 



The Migratory Bird Law. 



The following from the Seattle Daily 

 Times was sent by a reader : 



The United States Bureau of Entomology 

 has notified State Game Warden L. H. Dar- 

 win that he will be required, under the fed- 

 eral migratory bird law, to obtain a permit to 

 keep the migratory birds at the state game 

 farm in captivity. Darwin has referred this 

 letter to Attorney-General W. V. Tanner with 

 the suggestion that if the attorney-general de- 

 sires to test the validity of the federal act Dar- 

 win will afford him the opportunity by refus- 

 ing to comply with the order. 



Order Far-Reaching. 



If the state acquiesces in the bureau's order 

 and asks for a permit to hold wild fowl for 

 the purpose of propagating game at the state 

 farm, it follows that King and other counties 

 which maintain game farms will be required 

 to ask for permission to coop up the pheasants 

 and ducks used as brood stock. 



In turn the order will fall on sportsmen 



