166 



THE GAME BREEDER 



before the legislature, for the abolition minates the vermin in order to make a 

 of the state fish and game departments, place for the shooting. 



His chief points are that the departments 

 are unduly expensive and also ineffective. 

 The editor of the paper says, "We are 

 not prepared to dispute the first conten- 

 tion. As for the second we are quite 

 ready to agree that the game department 

 is not yet fully as effective as it might 

 be, though in our judgment it has been 

 doing much fine work as it is." 



Game Increase or Decrease. 



Representative Morrison informs the 

 News & Courier that the game in South 

 Carolina is decreasing and not increas- 

 ing as the editor thinks it is. It is highly 

 probable that Mr. Morrison is right and 

 that the newspaper is misinformed about 

 the increase of the game. 



If there be any shooting, legal or il- 

 legal, or both, in South Carolina, and 

 we presume there is considerable of both, 

 it is an absolute scientific fact that the 

 game must be decreasing and not increas- 

 ing provided no one looks after the game 

 properly and protects it from its natural 

 enemies. Shooting, as often we have 

 pointed out, is an additional check to 

 increase. The game has its natural en- 

 emies, foxes, hawks, crows, snakes and 

 many others, which by destroying and 

 eating birds and eggs check the increase 

 of the partridge or quail, the best game 

 in South Carolina, and, as the naturalists 

 say, nature's balance is thus preserved. 

 The quail can not become overabundant, 

 but enough stock birds are left by ver- 

 min every year to keep up the normal 

 supply of quail. 



If some one should increase the num- 

 ber of foxes, crows, hawks and snakes 

 to a considerable extent, any one familiar 

 with the elementary rules which govern 

 nature's balance knows that the addi- 

 tional check to increase, would upset the 

 balance in the wrong direction and that 

 the game must decrease in numbers no 

 matter how many game laws be enacted 

 or how many game wardens be appointed 

 or how many people be arrested. 



It is even more fatal to the game to 

 permit thousands of guns to shoot it le- 

 gally or illegally provided no one exter- 



Sane Legislation. 



Mr. Morrison no doubt will be inclined 

 to handle the question in a statesmanlike 

 manner. Undoubtedly he is right in his 

 opinion that the department under exist- 

 ing laws is not worth the money it col- 

 lects and expends. If the scientific re- 

 sult of the activity is that the people 

 who are said to .own the game never can 

 expect to see any of it in the market or 

 to be able to have any game to eat ; if 

 under the stimulation of those who claim 

 there are not enough arrests made, a 

 lot of activity results in the apprehension 

 of many of those who shoot without a 

 license if it be scientifically certain that 

 the game must continue to decrease as 

 it will so long as there is any additional 

 check to increase ( shooting, for exam- 

 ple ) and no one produces and protects 

 game, Mr. Morrison would seem to be 

 right in his idea that the game depart- 

 ment might as well be abolished. It is 

 a sorry state of affairs to simply produce 

 a lot of worthless crimes. 



The University Investigation. 



In 1916 the University of South Caro- 

 lina sent out 137 letters asking if the 

 game laws had been enforced in their 

 sections. Sixteen said yes ; fifty said only 

 slightly an'd sixty-five said not enforced 

 at all. 



The truth of the matter is that to 

 properly execute the game laws there 

 should be a game warden on every large 

 farm. It is unreasonable to suppose that 

 a few wardens in each county can come 

 anywhere near stopping the illegal shoot- ■ 

 ing or shooting without a license. But 

 if the shooting is a fatal check to increase 

 and the game must vanish, if all who 

 wish to do so destroy game and if there 

 be no producers it would seem wise either 

 to abolish the department or to make it 

 of great economic importance as it easily 

 can be made. 



A Simple Game Breeders' Law 



The laws should be amended in South 



