THE GAME BREEDER 



87 



and a big crop of prairie grouse in his 

 fields. The last named are especially 

 suitable for many parts of Kentucky. 

 The Game Conservation Society will 

 guarantee to restore this grouse to Ken- 

 tucky and also to Ohio provided Con- 

 gress will help a little and not hinder this 

 food producing industry. We shall ask 

 to have only two witnesses heard, one 

 from each State, provided Congress will 

 investigate. We would like to have the 

 evidence taken on the ground in both 

 cases but will promise that the witnesses 

 will proceed to Washington if they be- 

 invited. They are not common lobbyists 

 such as too often gather vast sums to 

 procure absurd legislation. 



The more we read the report of the 

 Committee on the District of Columbia 

 the more we become convinced that it 

 would be advisable for the entire com- 

 mittee to serve as a committee on inves- 

 tigation of game as a quick and abundant 

 food supply. We can have some excel- 

 lent invitations sent to the committee, 

 provided it will conduct such an investi- 

 gation. All sides should be heard, espe- 

 cially the farmers and sportsmen other 

 than "game politicians." 



RUFFED GROUSE AND GAME 

 ABUNDANCE. 



Mr. Graham reported that ruffed 

 grouse were selling for $7.00 a pair in 

 Washington. We will agree to send these 

 birds in for about $2.00 per pair pro- 

 vided the United States Government will 

 furnish some stock birds and eggs just as 

 the government furnishes trout and trout 

 eggs to those who will produce fish. A 

 bureau of game easily could produce a 

 lot of quail and ruffed grouse in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia and on some experi- 

 mental farms near Washington and fur- 

 nish stock birds and eggs to those who 

 would produce the food. How long 

 would it take to make the ruffed grouse 

 very abundant in woods where there are 

 none provided the price $7.00 per pair 

 be made known? We can furnish the 

 evidence showing how quickly grouse and 

 other foods can be produced provided 

 Congress is willing to hear the evidence. 



We would like to have an investigating 

 committee hear the evidence on the 

 ground where wild turkeys and other 

 foods have been made abundant. We be- 

 lieve if a committee will visit some of 

 the producing plants and will sample the 

 abundant food and listen to the evidence 

 of capable scientific men as to how 

 quickly all markets can be filled with 

 game as food the result will be better 

 than turning over the crime-making 

 power of Congress to a committee ap- 

 pointed by the Secretary of Agriculture 

 with permission to make as many crim- 

 inal regulations as can be imagined by 

 those who have planned thousands of 

 game laws. Such a law will produce a 

 lot of crime. By no possibility can it 

 produce food for the people at moderate 

 prices. 



STANDARDIZING BAIT. 



The sheriff of York County, Maine, 

 hit upon a happy thought and appears to 

 have posed wisely when he planned to 

 standardize the fisherman's bait in Maine. 

 The World, N. Y., says: 



Any apprehension that the fishing season in 

 Maine might prove a failure this year because 

 of the war has now been happily dispelled by 

 prompt official action. The Sheriff of York 

 County decrees that an angler may lawfully 

 possess two quarts of whiskey, and with that 

 individual allowance of bait the season ought 

 to be a highly successful one. The official 

 ruling has become public through the testi- 

 mony at a public trial. 



This generous provision for the fisherman 

 evidences praiseworthy zeal on the part of 

 Maine to conserve an important State indus- 

 try. The Portland Eastern Argus thinks that 

 "some fussy people might object that this is 

 treating the State's Prohibitory Law like a 

 scrap of paper." On the contrary, it is a con- 

 firmation of ancient usages which were men- 

 aced by modern legislation. It is a con- 

 cession in a conflict of jurisdiction and as be- 

 tween the old unwritten law and the statutory 

 law. Fishing has immemorial rights which 

 have broadened down from precedent to pre- 

 cedent, and if they run counter to Prohibition 

 acts, why, so much the worse for the latter. 



For a Legislature to attempt to proscribe 

 fisherman's bait is ultra vires. The most it 

 can do is to standardize the allowance, and the 

 action taken by the Maine Sheriff to that end 

 shows a wise discretion. Under this tolerant 

 policy the quest of the trout and the salmon 

 in the Maine lakes should flourish and pros- 

 per, war or no war. 



