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THE GAME BREEDER 



seem wise for American land owners and 

 sportsmen to intervene and insist that 

 the_ grouse on farms and ranches where 

 their owners look after them properly be 

 not classed longer as singers but that 

 they be placed on the food and sporting 

 list so that they can be kept profitably 

 plentiful. All that is necessary is for 

 the farmers, ranch owners and sports- 

 men who wish to save the grouse to in- 

 sist on short amendments to the state 

 game laws, providing that they shall not 

 apply to grouse on farms and ranches 

 whose owners may declare their intention 

 to make and to keep them profitably plen- 

 tiful. No good reason can be assigned 

 why a land owner should not produce 

 food on his farm if he wishes to do so 

 either for sport or for profit, or for both, 

 since sport can be made to show a de- 

 cided profit as soon as the laws permit 

 the land owners to have grouse. How 

 absurd it seems to say that it should 

 he criminal to profitably produce food on 

 a farm or ranch ! 



If some of our readers will undertake 

 to write to the governor of their state 

 and ask him if he believes it should be 

 criminal to produce grouse on the same 

 terms that pheasants, sheep, horses, cat- 

 tle and various grains and vegetables are 

 produced they quickly can ascertain if 

 a small politician or a statesman occupies 

 the office of governor. A statesman 

 quickly will decide that the grouse should 

 be saved ; that those willing to produce 

 the food profitably should be permitted 

 to do so and not arrested on account of 

 their industry. When the question of 

 game production was squarely put up to 

 the Congress of the United States re- 

 cently, and the Congressmen had the op- 

 portunity of reading the argument in 

 The Game Breeder, quickly they decided 

 to amend the pending bill so that it says 

 "Nothing in the act shall be construed 

 to prevent the breeding of wild fowl on 

 farms and preserves and the sale of the 

 birds in order to increase our food sup- 

 ply." 



Any governor or legislator in an agri- 

 cultural state who would say that the 

 farmers must continue to be threatened 

 and even arrested for producing grouse 



profitably on the farms should not make 

 much of a showing at a subsequent elec- 

 tion. How would the farmers vote 

 should a candidate appear on the ticket 

 who recently had secured a law making 

 it a crime to produce poultry on the 

 farm? 



All intelligent sportsmen admit that 

 the farmer has the right to post his land 

 against grouse shooters and all other 

 trespassers ; all sportsmen with any com- 

 mon sense know that grouse shooting 

 must be prohibited if no one looks after 

 the birds. As the matter now stands the 

 farms- for the most part are posted 

 against shooting, the laws also prohibit 

 the shooting of grouse, both the prairie 

 grouse and the sharp-tailed grouse — the 

 two desirable grouse of the open coun- 

 try — and no one ever has any grouse to 

 eat. There is room enough in all of the 

 big grouse states for all of the sports- 

 men who wish to do so to have fine 

 grouse shooting every year at very small 

 expense beginning August 12th, if the 

 Scottish date be adopted, and lasting un- 

 til the birds pack late in the fall and 

 become too wild to afford good shooting. 

 The laws should give the land owner 

 the right to preserve his grouse profit- 

 ably if he wishes to do so. He should 

 have the right to take birds and eggs 

 for breeding purposes. He should rent 

 the shooting to those who will properly 

 look after the birds and keep them plen- 

 tiful if he wishes to do so. 



Some of the grouse states, no doubt, 

 will adopt this program this year. Our 

 readers who own grouse easily can bring 

 the matter up in any state and it will be 

 a silly crowd that will appear, if any 

 does appear, in opposition to the common 

 sense which should govern the matter. 

 The Game Breeder will give full pub- 

 licity to any legislative hearings where 

 common sense may be discussed. Many 

 readers of The Game Breeder have hun- 

 dreds of grouse on their farms and 

 ranches; they practically own them but 

 as we have pointed out the shipping fa- 

 cilities for the food are not as good as 

 they should be. No one wishes to take 

 a chance of being arrested for shipping 



