134 



THE GAME BREEDER 



the saving of the game by new and re- 

 vised game laws are continually pointing 

 out the fact that quail and other upland 

 game birds are valuable as insect and 

 weed seed destroyers, it would seem likely 

 that more and more farmers in Maryland, 

 as elsewhere, will refuse to permit shoot- 

 ing, and if the shooters continue to shoot 

 up the farms and run away when anyone 

 appears to see if they have the written 

 permission, the next move, no doubt, will 

 be to place the quail and the grouse on 

 the song bird list. The State can prevent 

 this disaster when it encourages some of 

 those who own the shooting lands to 

 produce game for profit and to lease the 

 shooting to sporting syndicates, which 

 should pay the farmers' taxes. This 

 plan has been found to work out far bet- 

 ter for all hands than the prohibition of 

 shooting does. 



The Vicious Moiety System. 



Section 46 of the Maryland law con- 

 tains a vicious moiety or grafting clause. 

 Local game wardens may be appointed 

 in any section or county of the State 

 who "shall not receive a salary, but shall 

 receive as their compensation one-half 

 of all fines derived from the prosecution 

 of violators of the game and fish laws 

 arrested by them.'' 



Rights of Owners, Children and 

 Tenants. 



Section 69 of the Maryland law pro- 

 vides that owners of farm lands, their 

 children or tenants or children of such 

 tenants shall without procuring a license 

 ' have the right to hunt, pursue and kill 

 game during the open season' for the 

 same on the said farm lands of which he 

 or they are the bona fide owners, chil- 

 dren of such owners or tenants, or chil- 

 dren of such tenants. 



It would seem that there should be 

 no possible objection to permitting such 

 owners, tenants and children from pro- 

 ducing a good lot of game on such lands 

 and no one could be harmed by such 

 industry because the farmers have the 

 right to require shooters to secure writ- 

 ten permission to invade the farms, and 



they must know that shooting in places 

 where no game breeding is carried on 

 results in a loss of the weed and insect 

 destroyers. 



The influence of the farmers is evi- 

 dent in the new statute and we are in- 

 clined to think they can have about what 

 they want in Maryland, as elsewhere. 

 When they decide that it should not be 

 criminal to produce desirable foods on 

 the farm, just as it is not criminal to 

 produce oysters in leased beds, we feel 

 sure the legislators will agree with them 

 and that any members of the assembly 

 who do not will quickly return to pri- 

 vate life. Game as a farm asset quickly 

 can be made abundant and profitable. 

 Game as a matter of game politics with 

 shooters shooting all they can find and 

 wardens chasing them when they run 

 away, and making numerous arrests for 

 trivial offenses in order to secure half of 

 the fines, will never result in most of 

 the people who are said to own the game 

 having any game to eat. 



Game Ownership. 



It is absurd to say that when a man 

 purchases quail in Mexico, pays for their 

 transportation to his farm, applies the- 

 needed industry to keep down the vermin 

 and provides food and protection for 

 the birds, that the birds so purchased 

 and the young reared under such con- 

 ditions belong to the State or to the 

 people in common or to the game poli- 

 ticians. Where game wardens find such 

 game in the possession of the importers 

 and producers and arrest them in order 

 to secure one-half of a fine, they may 

 get away with it in some States, but 

 the times are changing and the arrest and 

 trial of a few food producing farmers 

 will expedite the change much. The 

 Game Breeder is a good place to adver- 

 tise such performances. Xo charge is 

 made for a single insertion. 



Game as Food. 



It is highly important to the many 

 thousands of game farmers in America 

 that they should have customers for their 

 Sfame and e°s:s. The best customers are 

 the shooting clubs and owners of coun- 



