THE GAME BREEDER 



85 



supply from, insects. Cats, if unre- 

 strained, especially at this season, will 

 tremendously weaken that protection. 

 The logic is simple. The birds are try- 

 ing to do their bit. Let us all help them. 

 Commissioners on Fisheries and Game. 

 May 15, 1918. 



Practical Results 



The Hercules Powder Company well 

 may feel proud of the practical results 

 which largely are due to its splendid ad- 

 vertising campaign urging game farming 

 in America. We do not know who wrote 

 the following lines quoted from the ad- 

 vertising of the powder company, but the 

 writer should be given full credit for 

 performing a great public service. 



Our readers will please take their hats 

 off to the writer when reading the fol- 

 lowing: 



Whether or not you are in a position 

 actually to raise game, you are bound to profit 

 by this movement. Although the primary 

 benefits _ to be derived from an increased 

 production of game will accrue to those who 

 have the land on which to produce it and 

 the sportsmen who shoot it, there is prac- 

 tically no class in the country that will not 

 be benefited by a large increase in the avail- 

 able food supply. 



The game crop of Europe is a very valu- 

 able asset to the countries that raise it. In 

 a report on pheasants made in 1913 by the 

 Commissioners of Fisheries and Game of 

 Massachusetts, we find the following: 



"The pheasant crop of England is an ex- 

 ceedingly important one, not onlv for the 

 money derived from the sale of birds both 

 at home and abroad, but particularly in con- 

 trolling the gypsy and brown tailed moths, 

 army worms and other pests which have de- 

 vastated large areas where the bird popula- 

 tion was abnormally deficient." 



To the farmer and the farmer's wife, game 

 breeding offers a splendid opportunity for 

 increased profits. The demand for eggs and 

 breeding stock is so much greater than the 

 supply, and will be for a long time to come, 

 that no one who produces game birds has 

 any difficulty in disposing of them. There 

 are two ways in which farmers make the 

 game crop pay ; through the sale of birds 

 and eggs direct, and through renting the 

 shooting privilege on their lands to groups 

 of sportsmen. In the latter case, it is often 

 advisable for a number of farmers with ad- 

 jacent lands to combine for this purpose. The 

 sportsmen's club pays a price agreed upon 

 for each bird raised to maturity and liberated. 

 In this way, good sport is provided and an 

 appreciable addition is made to the farm 

 income. 



Moreover, the rank and file of shooters 



who may not care to incur the slight expense 

 necessary to obtain this class of shooting, will 

 be greatly benefited because the more game 

 that is produced the more shooting there 

 will be for everybody. No idea could be more 

 erroneous than one which shooters sometimes 

 express to the effect that game farming limits 

 the average man's opportunity for sport by 

 creating rich men's preserves and encourag- 

 ing farmers to post their lands. It is impos- 

 sible to keep all the game raised on any pre- 

 serve or posted area, and wherever they are 

 located, shooting in surrounding territory is 

 greatly improved. This applies wherever 

 game is actually produced. The idea is some- 

 what new in this country, and it may take 

 time to educate the public to realize that if 

 we grow one thousand birds on land that 

 formerly produced only one hundred, we shall 

 all share in the increased sport which will 

 be provided. However, it is such a logical 

 proposition that in most cases it only needs 



explaining. 



♦ 



Game or Vermin? 



In a recent issue of the state conserva- 

 tion commission's magazine some inter- 

 esting figures are presented regarding 

 the damage done to small game by ma- 

 rauding vermin. In a little over six 

 months there were killed on a farm near 

 Syracuse the following deadly enemies 

 of game : Ten large wood owls, eighteen 

 hawks, twenty-three skunks, ten weasels, 

 eighteen cats, fifty-seven rats, nineteen 

 crows and thirty-six water snakes. This 

 is surprising in a farming section, with 

 scanty wood land to provide cover for 

 these marauders. On another farm, in a 

 section well wooded, there were taken in 

 only three months thirteen large owls, 

 twenty weasels, twenty-six skunks, five 

 cats, six large hawks, five hedgehogs, 

 seventy-six barn rats, one mink and one 

 red fox. 



Fancy the amount of pheasants, par- 

 tridge, quail, woodcock, grouse and rab- 

 bits required to feed these vermin. If 

 the enemies of game are as abundant as 

 these figures indicate, it is no wonder 

 that, in spite of careful and intelligent 

 conservation work, small game is becom- 

 ing constantly more scarce. Every farm- 

 er should set a few traps, at least. Pro- 

 tection for his poultry should be incen- 

 tive enough, and sportsmen everywhere 

 should do what they can to assist the 

 farmers in this work. 



[The above figures are mild. We recently 



(Continued on page 89.) 



