THE GAME BREEDER 



89 



is full of information about the pens, 

 coops, foods, etc., and it will be interest- 

 ing to those wno wish to rear pheasants 

 in large numbers. 



There is an amusing error in the book. 

 Governor Hugnes is given the credit for 

 signing the bul permitting the sale of 

 pheasants. I'ne truth of the matter is 

 that those of us who wished to put some 

 common sense in the game laws could 

 not get anywhere near tjovernor Hughes 

 with the Lupton bill, the first game breed- 

 ing bill presented in New York. The 

 Game Commissioner, we were told by 

 the Chairman of the Committee, would 

 not even let the bill be reported. It was 

 the following year when the ridiculous 

 Bayne bill was pending that amendments 

 were offered to this, so as to permit the 

 breeding of all species. Under a bad 

 compromise only deer, pheasants and 

 ducks escaped the nonsense in the orig- 

 inal bill. Governor Dix promised to sign 

 the bill permitting breeding if it ever 

 reached him, and he promptly did so. 

 Governor Hughes probably never knew 

 that a breeders' bill was pending during 

 his administration since the game poli- 

 ticians were top strong that season for 

 any bill to pass. 



Rented Shooting. 



Many farmers now rent the shooting 

 to sportsmen who agree to look after 

 the game. I know one county in a 

 Southern State where the shooting on 

 about two hundred thousand acres in- 

 cluded in many small farms is rented to 

 individual sportsmen or to clubs or syn- 

 dicates. The sportsmen employ game 

 keepers to control the enemies of the 

 game and to look after it properly 

 and they keep it abundant. I have seen 

 large numbers of birds on some of the 

 places where thousands of quail are shot 

 safely every season. The game keepers 

 protect the farmers' poultry from hawks 

 and from thieves and they see that no 

 damage is done on the farms by tres- 

 passers. The amount of the shooting 

 rent is equal to the entire taxes on the 

 lands and buildings in most places and 

 all the farmers I met when I examined 

 the places where game always is abundant 

 are much pleased with the results. In 



some cases the rent amounts to more 

 than the taxes. 



All the song and insectivorous birds 

 are abundant, and these birds increase 

 in numbers rapidly on account of the 

 practical protection given to the game 

 The shooting leases usually are made 

 for five or ten years, but the farmers 

 reserve the right to cancel the contracts 

 at any time if they sell the farms. The 

 purchaser, however, is glad, usually, to 

 be exempt from taxes and to have his 

 poultry and stock protected from hawks 

 and trespassers by agreeable game keep- 

 ers who live with their families on one 

 of the farms rented for that purpose. 



Rats Kill Pigeons. 



Rats, with whisk broom whiskers, and 

 as big as small cats, are held to be re- 

 sponsible for the disappearance of a 

 number of the tame pigeons which make 

 a feeding ground of the railroad station. 

 The rodents make their headquarters 

 under the platform planks, which open 

 out upon the tracks. One of the station 

 employes says that he saw two or three 

 big fellows dash from cover one day, 

 seize a pigeon that was feeding between 

 the tracks and drag it out of sight under 

 the platform. The killing was too far 

 away for him to interfere. At another 

 time he noticed a pigeon struggling near 

 the edge of the platform. He reached 

 the place just in time to scare a big rat 

 away with a rock. At one time the em- 

 ployes brought in a cat to clear the place. 

 The cat. however, made the mistake of 

 eating her kills and got so painfully thin 

 and emaciated from the poison in the rat 

 meat that she had to be chloroformed. 

 More recently poison has been tried with 

 better success. 



[The foregoins; was sent by The Dean; 

 probably from a Washington paper.] 



Shall The Game Breeder Be Issued 

 Weekly? 



Manv of our readers write to ask us to 

 issue The Game Breeder weekly instead 

 of monthly. We have been considering 

 the matter. It does seem desiral)le to 

 have weekly news from the game farms 

 and fjirmers of the prices of birds and 

 eggs. The prices change often and are 



