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THE GAME BREEDER 



the magazine that anotner article be sub- 

 stituted for the one in hand in order that 

 we might get permission before using the 

 latter. An answer to our request came 

 promptly : we were asked to visit the 

 White House to discuss certain phases 

 of the subject. Unfortunately there were 

 good reasons why we could not possibly 

 leave New York at the time. The whole 

 subject soon was necessarily laid aside; 

 a presidential election was held and 

 Roosevelt went off to Africa. 



Partisans who differed in their opin- 

 ions with Roosevelt recognized an able 

 antagonist but all fair-minded men rec- 

 ognized a true and patriotic American 

 whose popularity was countrywide. The 

 public career of Roosevelt is an open 

 book to every one and his good deeds in 

 public life have been fully written by 

 abler pens than ohrs. Our readers will 

 be interested in the quotations from his 

 best book on sport printed on another 

 page. 



Several memorials are proposed which 

 should be erected. One which will at- 

 tract our readers has been suggested by 

 Professor T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary 

 of the Audubon Society, and in propos- 

 ing it he refers to the great interest 

 which Roosevelt always took in the cre- 

 ation of national parks for game and- res- 

 ervations for birds. 



LEGAL MISTAKES. 



A mistake has been made in America 

 in presuming that all that is necessary 

 to produce an abundance of game is an 

 abundance of laws providing that for $1 

 per year any one can shoot up the farms, 

 and providing that no one should kill 

 more than 25 or some other number of 

 birds in a clay during an open season. 

 Such laws, it was believed, when sup- 

 plemented by laws prohibiting anyone 

 from taking eggs or birds for breeding 

 purposes and prohibiting the sale of 

 game alive or dead would keep the game 

 plentiful and the shooting good. There 

 are scientific reasons why this is impos- 

 sible. The biggest mistake was made in 

 presuming that the farmers would enjoy 

 seeing millions of guns shooting state 



game in their fields and woods, often 

 killing poultry and farm animals. 

 (Juickly most of the farms were posted 

 against all gunners. Since too often the 

 signs were not heeded, it soon became 

 easy to secure laws closing the shooting 

 for terms of years or forever, and 

 sportsmen who observed that the game 

 was vanishing have consented often to 

 such laws in the hope that some day 

 they may have another interval when 

 they can proceed to take a sporting 

 chance on the far ends of the posted 

 farms. 



The Game Breeder has advanced the 

 idea that it would-be far better for all 

 hands to encourage the production, the 

 shooting and the sale of game on private 

 places where the public has no right to 

 shoot without permission. 



On all places (and this includes most 

 of the American farms) where permis- 

 sion is required, the shooting is quite as 

 exclusive as it is in places where game 

 is produced, and where those who pro- 

 duce it shoot enough to send some to 

 market. Why prevent production on 

 such places ? 



A very big mistake was made when a 

 legal system was built on the idea that no 

 eggs or birds should be taken for propa- 

 gation, or, in other words, that it must be 

 legal only to destroy and not to create. An 

 equally big mistake was made when the 

 laws provided that those who produced 

 game by industry could not sell the food 

 produced and could not even shoot the 

 birds produced in states where closed 

 seasons were in force. When closed sea- 

 sons are necessary, as we have pointed 

 out often, the producers of game should 

 be excepted. To say that any producers 

 must not eat, sell or shoot for a certain 

 season, puts an end, of course, to all 

 production for the period, if not for- 

 ever. As we have said, the arresting of 

 a producer for having stock birds in his 

 possession, or for shooting or marketing 

 them, is a very poor way to encourage 

 production. 



There is absolutely no danger of all 

 the land being preserved ; the country's 

 too big. There is more danger of 

 many places being made gameless, where 

 no game can occur by reason of drain- 



