110 



THE GAME BREEDER 



game politicians they quickly should pro- 

 vide food as well as sport for themselves 

 and for their friends and many others. 

 Some of the game will go to public 

 waters and improve the shooting where 

 the public should shoot, some will go to 

 market as cheap food for the people. 

 There are thousands of ponds in Amer- 

 ica where not a single duck nests to-day 

 and where if a duck put in an appear- 

 ance the whole neighborhood would rise 

 up in arms to kill it. In most places the 

 season when the duck appeared would 

 make little difference since a game cus- 

 todian having several counties to look af- 

 ter would hardly be expected to inter- 

 fere. Certain it is that the utilization of 

 many of these desolate ponds would im- 

 prove the shooting for those who do noth- 

 ing in the way of producing game. 



The larger places in England which 

 have game are not as large as many of 

 the places in America where it is legal 

 to have cattle and sheep, wheat, hay and 

 other crops, and where shooting would 

 be prohibited if any game occurred. 



The game politician in America who 

 thinks large forces of game wardens and 

 large funds to keep up the American sys- 

 tem are more important than an abun- 

 dance of game for all of the people may 

 fool some of the people some of the time 

 but to maintain himself it seems neces- 

 sary to say that it should be a crime to 

 produce food on the farms. Even if the 

 system depreciates farm values and in 

 some cases prevents their sale, even if the 

 tendency is to prevent many people from 

 living in the country and results in put- 

 ting our best food birds on the song 

 bird list and in putting an end to shooting, 

 our game politician still may be heard to 

 say the system with its revenues must 

 be maintained no matter what be the re- 

 sults. We think the system can be modi- 

 fied to advantage as it has been in Massa- 

 chusetts and elsewhere. Intelligent sports- 

 men, farmers and the people who can see 

 no reason why food birds should not be 

 a common food rapidly are beginning to 

 differ with the old-style game politicians 

 and when the issue is presented as it may 

 be before long in some of the states we 

 have a notion the people may decide that 



there should be as much freedom in the 

 land of the free as there is in some other 

 democratic countries. 



As a vote-getter we would prefer to 

 have the southern lady above quoted on 

 our side to having a half dozen game 

 wardens who may have made a record 

 raiding food producers. We know there 

 is a lot of money invested in the game 

 law business but we have seen more than 

 one election turn out to be a great sur- 

 prise for the side that had the most 

 "stuff." Quite a decided interest in game 

 farming rapidly has sprung up in the 

 west and the idea that New York should 

 not run the country is not a new one 

 in several outlying districts. 



We shall not be surprised if the far- 

 mers decide that it should not be a crime 

 to produce food on the farms. There is 

 a small army of women engaged in breed- 

 ing game and they have many friends 

 who think as they do their activities 

 should not be confined to breeding a few 

 foreign species. 



Statement of Mr. John B. Burnham, 

 President American Game Pro- 

 tective Association. 



Mr. Burnham, Mr. Chairman and Gen- 

 tlemen, I represent the American Game 

 Protective Association, which is a na- 

 tional association. 



I want to make the point, which I be- 

 lieve is important, that if you gentlemen 

 report this bill favorably and it passes 

 Congress it will not reduce the food sup- 

 ply of the country one pound. The con- 

 ditions in this country are such to-day 

 that all the game is killed that the sup- 

 ply will stand. There is practically no 

 section of the United States' to-day where 

 there is any surplus. We do not have 

 the old large areas we used to have,, 

 where men could go in and kill and ship 

 to market to a large extent without de- 

 pleting the supply. Every game bird 

 which is shot to-day is used as food. It 

 is not thrown away. The fact of per- 

 mitting its sale simply permits that bird 

 to be used by some rich man rather than 

 by the man who takes it, or some poor 



