THE GAME BREEDER 



19 



water being deeper in spots, which in- 

 duces the birds to congregate there. Of 

 course, when' the birds were driven from 

 the Gingg and Cooper grounds, some of 

 the other growers certainly suffered 

 from the addition of these birds. This 

 only demonstrates that entire relief for 

 all growers can only be had through the 

 co-operation of all the growers. Each 

 can protect his fields, but the one who 

 does not will be the greatest sufferer. 



We are certain that the experiment 

 referred to above is the only logical rem- 

 edy, although many other methods have 

 been suggested. Some rice growers, and 

 many who are not growers (and, by the 

 way, the last-named class is the loudest 

 in its complaints) have advocated an 

 earlier open season for ducks. This posi- 

 tively will not remedy the situation. It 

 might, if every one would kill blackbirds 

 and mudhens, as well as ducks, but they 

 want to kill ducks only, as the other birds 

 are not considered good eating. So by 

 killing ducks only, the worst menace 

 would still remain. Again : The rice 

 grower will not permit trespassing on his 

 fields, as the hunter will do more damage 

 at this time than the birds. Many of 

 the rice farms are posted with signs pro- 

 hibiting shooting and trespassing. Fur- 

 ther, if the season was opened earlier 

 than at present, a large number of club 

 members would be out shooting at the 

 club grounds, which are not on the rice 

 fields, but on open water and tule marsh 

 lands adjacent thereto. Thus the ducks 

 would be driven from the club and open 

 shooting grounds back to the rice fields, 

 where the rice farmer does not permit 

 trespassing while the rice is growing. 

 Consequently, the club members would 

 be the only ones benefited by an early sea- 

 son, while the rice would suffer more 

 than at present. 



Before night shooting was prohibited, 

 and before the use of smokeless powder, 

 some of the best duck shooting ponds 

 have been spoiled by shooting after dark 

 and by using black powder. Any duck 

 hunter of long experience can testify to 

 this. Ducks will not return to a pond 

 that has been shot on at night. The idea 

 of using bombs came from this experi- 

 ment. Smokeless powder is used in fixed 



ammunition because it does not frighten 

 game, for. it makes very little noise and 

 smoke. The use of smokeless powder 

 to scare ducks is money wasted. This 

 form of ammunition is made to kill, not 

 to frighten, but it has been used by the 

 rice grower and he receives no relief ex- 

 cept from the bird he kills. 



Although the experiments above out- 

 lined were tried on a limited area only, 

 they demonstrated that there is a feas- 

 ible method of protecting crops from the 

 depredations of birds. 



We are sure that if the rice growers 

 themselves will co-operate, a plan of de- 

 fense can be worked out as suggested, 

 which will make it unnecessary to 

 threaten the extermination of the wild 

 duck without obtaining relief from the 

 other birds which are the worse menace. 

 But the growers should eliminate the 

 voice of the man who is not a rice farmer 

 and who only takes up the cry for the 

 purpose of slaughter. He does not kill 

 mudhens or blackbirds, because he does 

 not eat them and cannot sell them. — 

 George Neale in California Fish and 

 Game. 



Safe to Purchase From Our 

 Advertisers. 



From present indications it seems like- 

 ly that all of our eastern advertisers will 

 have more orders for eggs than they can 

 fill. We have records of eggs shipped 

 from the Pacific states which were highly 

 satisfactory and we also have records of 

 thousands of eggs sent by our readers to 

 the western states. It is highly impor- 

 tant, however, that eggs should be packed 

 and shipped properly and we believe the 

 advertisers in The Game Breeder under- 

 stand their business. Our readers will 

 do well to purchase eggs directly from 

 those who produce them and advertise 

 them in The Game Breeder and if they 

 are not satisfied with the result the game 

 guild will investigate any transaction 

 when a complaint is filed stating that the 

 purchase was made on account of an ad- 

 vertisement in the magazine. 



The game conservation society insists 

 upon fair dealing; and the right to use 

 The Game Breeder for advertising pur- 

 poses — a valuable right — will be denied 



