THE GAME BREEDER 



135 



thing of a hardship for breeders to have 

 to secure state licenses and to put tags 

 on the feet of their ducks and also to 

 secure United States licenses and to 

 brand one foot but we think it will not 

 be long before the courts hold that pro- 

 ducers own the food they produce and 

 that the regulations requiring them to 

 identify their game before they sell it 

 must be simple and reasonable. The 

 breeders have much to be thankful for 

 since it no longer is fashionable to ar- 

 rest them for having eggs or breeding 

 fowls in their possession and they can 

 sell food. 



Imported Birds 



Before the war large numbers of 

 pheasants and gray partridges were im- 

 ported from Germany, Austria-Hungary 

 and England. 



During the war many more thousands 

 of pheasants and quail were reared by 

 members of the game conservation so- 

 ciety in America than the total number 

 of pheasants and partridges imported 

 during ten years prior to the war. 



Why should we send money abroad 

 to purchase foreign game birds when 

 we can rear these foreign birds abun- 

 dantly and profitably on American game 

 farms, and a big lot of American game 

 birds for good measure, the last named 

 are better birds than any to be found in 

 foreign countries. What country has 

 game birds equal to our wild turkey, 

 ruffed grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, 

 prairie grouse and the numerous species 

 of quails or partridge? The answer is 

 no country has game birds equal in food 

 or sporting value to our own. 



Why have our splendid game birds 

 vanished ? The answer is : because we 

 have prevented by law their profitable 

 production. The late dean of American 

 sportsmen, Charles Hallock, hit the nail 

 squarely on the head when he wrote to 

 the editor of The Game Breeder, "Truly 

 we need a revolution of thought and a 

 revival of common sense." Many intel- 

 ligent state game officers have accepted 

 this idea and believe that field sports can 

 be restored on many American farms 



provided they can induce the sportsmen 

 and farmers to- work together amicably 

 on the lines laid down by The Game 

 Breeder and endorsed by Professor 

 Bailey and many other agricultural au- 

 thorities. 



"Only the Rich." 



Only very small politicians, usually, 

 howl about anything being "only for the 

 rich." The truth of the matter is that 

 in America the rich have a little the best 

 of it when it comes to migrating game. 

 In England a wild fowler owns a wild 

 duck after he shoots it, but this is not 

 true in America. He has decidedly the 

 best of the game in the sense of sport as 

 well as of food. The poor man in Eng- 

 land can sell a few ducks, if necessary, 

 to pay for the cost of his ammunition. 

 Like the American fishermen and oyster- 

 men who sell fish, he can sell a lot of 

 ducks if he wishes to support his family 

 with the rewards of an out-door sporting 

 vocation. The English wild fowler who 

 so supports his family is admired by the 

 English sportsmen and is encouraged to 

 keep up his good work. If he meets with 

 an accident we are told that he can get 

 assistance from sportsmen and sporting 

 associations. In America the poor man 

 can go to jail if he sells any food, legally 

 procured, to his neighbor, and he is de- 

 nounced as a market gunner by the sport- 

 ing politician, who also denounces the 

 farmer who would sell food produced 

 on his farm. The little politician 

 shouts continually that the game should 

 not be "only for the rich." 



Quoting the Bulletin of the New 

 York Protective Association, Alain 

 Woods furnishes this : 



Out in San Diego, California, the Union, 

 a daily newspaper, is conducting an active 

 editorial campaign, seeking to browbeat the 

 board of fish and game commissioners into 

 permitting wholesale slaughter of wild water- 

 fowl, claiming that great damage is being 

 done to rice fields. It is argued that such a 

 move would be in the interest of the poor 

 man, and it is further stated that under the 

 present circumstances it is only the rich who 

 are able to secure wild duck for their table. 



It is quite true that the poor in the 

 older countries can shoot and sell ducks 



