THE GAME BREEDER 



183 



Where the farmers are wise they will 

 see that all such prohibitive legislation 

 contains a permissive section, similar to 

 section 12 in the new United States stat- 

 ute, protecting migratory wild fowl. 

 This section provides that nothing in the 

 law shall be construed to prevent the 

 breeding of game on game farms and 

 preserves and the sale of the birds in 

 order to increase our food supply. 



The farmers should not overlook the 

 fact that preventive legislation reduces 

 the value of the farm. They should re- 

 serve the right to have all species of 

 game for profit. 



If the farmers will insist that they 

 should have the right to produce game 

 profitably, if they wish to do so they 

 will at once add to the value of the 

 farms. No farmer is obliged to have 

 game on his farm if he does not wish to 

 do so under protective laws. In many 

 cases it is simply a tempting bait for li- 

 censed trespassers. This will not be true 

 when the farmer owns the game he pro- 

 duces on his farm. 



The farmer who decides to have game 

 for profit, or who decides to rent the 

 shooting on his place to agreeable people 

 who will look after the game properly, 

 soon will find that there is no trespassing 

 and that the game will more than pay the 

 taxes on his lands and buildings and if 

 he wishes to sell game and game eggs 

 he can make a lot of money besides. 



One thing is certain, a farm where it 

 is legal to produce such a desirable food, 

 as game is, undoubtedly is worth more 

 than one where it is criminal to produce 

 such food either for profit or for sport 

 as the farmer may decide. 



DEER AND RABBITS ON THE 

 FARM. 



Laws protecting deer and rabbits 

 often result in these animals becoming 

 more abundant than it is desirable to 

 have them on farms or in farming re- 

 gions. The natural enemies of deer, the 

 cougar, and wildcats, and eagles, are 

 practically extinct in many states, and 

 the illegal killing of a deer is easily de- 

 tected, far more so than the illegal 



shooting of game birds is. The result 

 is that the deer increase in protected 

 regions and often they do much damage 

 on a farm. Laws have been enacted per- 

 mitting farmers to kill deer when they 

 destroy their crops. The law should 

 provide that deer on a farm belong to the 

 farmer, that he can have deer for profit 

 if he wishes to do so (this now is the 

 law in some states), that he can kill the 

 deer and sell the food or rent the shoot- 

 ing if he wishes to do so. Deer on pub- 

 lic or wild lands and in public parks well 

 may be protected by laws providing for 

 closed seasons and regulating the shoot- 

 ing. 



Rabbits breed rapidly, several times a 

 year, and the litters average five or six 

 young. In fruit growing and truck 

 farming districts the rabbits do a vast 

 amount of damage. The farmers natur- 

 ally are opposed to the sportsman's laws 

 protecting these animals for sport. As 

 Mr. Lantry well says, in a bulletin issued 

 by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture : "There is considerable 

 rivalry between sportsmen and farmers 

 to have their opposing views reflected in 

 game laws." As a result a good part of 

 the time of the state legislators annually 

 is devoted to a discussion of changes in 

 the game laws, and it is fair to say that 

 this kind of legislation costs hundreds 

 of thousands of dollars every year. 



Criminal laws should be permanent 

 and not changed every year. It should 

 be' an easy matter to make a rabbit law 

 providing for an open season for these 

 animals during the fall and winter when 

 the flesh is a desirable food and provid- 

 ing that the farmer can kill rabbits at 

 any time on his farm when they are 

 found injurious to his fruit trees or vege- 

 tables, and that he can sell his rabbits 

 alive or dead. The attempt to protect 

 animals for public sport on private farms 

 never has and never can be expected to 

 produce the results sought by the legis- 

 lation. It would be unreasonable to 

 license ball players to play ball in the 

 farmer's wheat field, and it is fully as 

 unreasonable to license gunners to shoot 

 rabbits or other game on the farmers' 

 gardens or orchards and to protect the 

 rabbits in order that sport in such places 



