THE GAME BREEDER 



109 



other State departments, should repre- 

 sent all of the people ; those who own 

 the game lands and those who would 

 eat the desirable game as well as those 

 who would take it for sport. From 

 an economic point of view the food 

 question is more important than sport, 

 and Kansas easily might keep her mar- 

 kets full of cheap game. 



I am inclined to agree with Profes- 

 sor Dyche that the interests of sports- 

 men "in modest circumstances" should 

 be looked after as well as those of "per- 

 sons of means," but the game officer 

 should always remember the difference 

 between a small- politician and a states- 

 man. The first named may appeal to 

 the men of small means because they 

 are in the majority, but the last named 

 will endeavor to lead the majority in 

 the right direction. If it is right to 

 breed desirable foods profitably on the 

 farms, the game officer should not op- 

 pose laws permitting such industry. If 

 he does, sooner or later he will fare 

 badly in an agricultural State. It fol- 

 lows a fortiori that if the breeding 

 of desirable foods in certain places 

 throughout a State surely will result 

 in the land owners getting something 

 * out of the game ; in the people hav- 

 ing a cheap and desirable food, and in 

 the sportsmen of moderate means hav- 

 ing better chicken, quail and duck 

 shooting than they now enjoy, a states- 

 man-like commissioner should favor 

 laws permitting game breeding under 

 regulations prescribed by the State de- 

 partment, which easily can be made 

 to prevent losses of the so-called State 

 game in places where it is not looked 

 after properly. 



Professor Dyche, the biologist, 

 knows that we cannot add additional 

 causes for destruction, the guns, for 

 example, to the ordinary causes of de- 

 struction, without upsetting Nature's 

 balance, and that when the losses due 

 to cats and dogs, the draining of 

 marshes, the destruction of the natural 

 foods and covers are considered, it is 

 a self-evident proposition that the 

 sportsmen of moderate means soon 

 will have no shooting. The State offi- 

 cer is required to undertake an impos- 

 sibility. The prohibition of sport for 



periods of five and ten years after each 

 severe winter is highly unsatisfactory 

 to sport. When an open season is 

 again declared the game must vanish, 

 because Nature's balance is badly upset 

 by the guns, provided no one looks 

 after the birds and protects them from 

 their natural enemies so as to make a 

 place for the guns. Since Professoi- 

 Dyche is perfectly familiar with these 

 elementary natural laws he should 

 favor legislation founded on them. 

 Laws permitting the profitable breed- 

 ing of game in Kansas are sure to be 

 enacted as soon as the farmers un- 

 derstand what such legislation may be 

 made to do for them. Laws permit- 

 ting game breeding should be followed 

 by instructions from the State depart- 

 ment telling the sportsmen and farmers 

 how they can have more game. Since 

 Professor Dyche is eminently qualified 

 to give such instruction I believe it 

 would be wise to long retain him in 

 office and not. to turn the department 

 over to a new political favorite every 

 few years. 



The game law restrictions, which 

 Professor Dyche refers to, are neces- 

 sary, undoubtedly. They must be in- 

 creased from year to year until sport 

 is ended unless the laws be amended 

 so as to encourage the production of 

 game. Restrictive laws never can be 

 expected to supply the people with a 

 desirable food, which Kansas should 

 produce abundantly and profitably. 

 There is a demand for grouse at from 

 $5 to $10 per pair. Quail now sell 

 for from $20 to $25 per dozen. These 

 birds can be bred on the farms cheaper 

 than poultry is because in a wild state 

 they find much of their food in the 

 fields. They are tremendously prolific 

 and when protected from their natural 

 enemies they soon become so abundant 

 that it is necessary to thin them out. 

 An experimental grouse and quail farm 

 in Kansas if placed in charge of skilled 

 partridge and grouse game-keepers 

 soon would produce big results and 

 as I have often said, sport will not 

 be damaged when there are big game 

 farms in every county. If a part of 

 the farms which are now posted 

 against sport can be used for profitable 



