T he Game Breeder 



Published Monthly. Entered as second-class matter. ]u)f g, 1915, at the Post Office, New York City, 



New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



VOLUME XIII 



JUNE, 19 i 8 



C°D 



SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



NUMBER 3 



A Congressional Hearing. 



The most important matter to be sur- 

 veyed this month is the hearing before 

 the Congressional committee on the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia on a bill to prohibit the 

 sale and the having in possession of all 

 species of game in the District. 



As usual the bill was so poorly written 

 that members of the committee expressed 

 a doubt about its meaning. Fortunately 

 the committee was advised that the bill 

 would close a good market to desirable 

 food produced by industry. 



Game Breeders' Objections. 



The game breeders who now own mil- 

 lions of game birds, and soon will sell 

 as many every season, have objected and 

 seriously continue to object to the in- 

 crease of legal absurdities creating many 

 new crimes which seem to be intended 

 to put an end to a food producing indus- 

 try of economic importance to all of the 

 people. There was a time when the hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars invested 

 annually in getting new game laws 

 caused the game law industry to over- 

 shadow the game producing industry, 

 but this is not so to-day. The producers • 

 now far outnumber those actively en- 

 gaged in procuring more game laws, and 

 the amounts invested in stock birds, eggs, 

 appliances, etc., are much larger than the 

 amounts invested in procuring more 

 game laws although the amount invested 

 in the game law industry is tremendous. 

 Those who now produce game in most 

 of the States do so by reason of amend- 

 ments they have secured to the restric- 

 tive game laws. In some states these 

 amendments only permit the production 



of certain species of game. It is sig- 

 nificant that such species rapidly have 

 become plentiful and that the grouse and 

 quail rapidly have vanished. All game 

 breeders know that our quail and grouse 

 can quickly be produced in vast numbers 

 just as partridges and grouse are pro- 

 duced in the older countries as soon as it 

 be not criminal to produce such foods on 

 the farms and the people learn how to 

 produce it. Already there are places in 

 America where quail have been made 

 tremendously abundant. These birds can 

 be produced at a very small expense and 

 no good reason can be assigned why the 

 game farmers should not sell the food 

 they produce in the best markets. 



The objectional features of the bill 

 under discussion appear in its title, "To 

 prohibit killing, trapping, netting, en- 

 snaring, hunting, having in possession 

 and sale of certain wild birds in the 

 District of Columbia." 



Game as a Food. 



The Congressmen evidently seem to 

 be aware that game is a highly nutri- 

 tious and palatable food. Audubon and 

 all of the other ornithological writers 

 have expressed this opinion. Mr. 

 Wheeler, a member of the committee, 

 properly exclaimed, "Well, I would like 

 to have a woodcock once more before 

 I die." We can assure Mr. Wheeler 

 that he will eat many woodcock provided 

 Congress does not make it a crime for 

 the farmer or sportsman who produces 

 these birds to dispose of the result of 

 his industry. We know places in Amer- 

 ica where the woodcock already are 

 breeding in good numbers because they 



