THE GAME BREEDER 



151 



eggs in their possession. Possibly the 

 women who vote may not approve of the 

 action of Congress intended to close the 

 markets to food produced by industry. 

 The quail, the grouse and all the other 

 good foods should be sold in Washing- 

 ton. 



THE PROGRESS OF WILD LIF- 

 ING— PROTECTION. 



When the Bam Bill, intended to pre- 

 vent the sale of a rabbit, was pending 

 in New York, we suggested that it would 

 be wise not to introduce a new bill 

 permitting the breeding and sale of game 

 and encouraging field sports on farms 

 where it seemed desirable to encourage 

 these laudable performances. The 

 pending bill had a good place on 

 the calendar and our idea was that 

 it would be easier and quicker to 

 have the bill repaired so that instead of 

 prohibiting the sale of rabbits and other 

 wild foods it would permit and encour- 

 age the breeding and sale of deer as 

 well as the other wild foods, including 

 rabbits. We attended the hearing as a 

 spectator and reporter. We said a few 

 words to the committee when asked to 

 do so by the presiding Senator, Mr, 

 Franklin D. Roosevelt, now Assistant 

 Secretary of the Navy. He quickly saw 

 the great economic importance of the 

 change in the bill and soon it was evi- 

 dent that the committee would put an 

 end to the proposed nonsense before it 

 adjourned. The bill prohibiting the sale 

 of a rabbit and other foods was amended 

 so as to permit the sale of deer, pheas- 

 ants and wild ducks, and the Governor, 

 who had promised to sign it after the 

 needed repairs were made, quickly did so. 



Only twenty or twenty-five thousand 

 dollars were blown in, we believe, to save 

 the rabbit. We published the names of 

 the contributors to the wild lifing fund 

 and the amounts contributed by each at 

 the time. Mr. H. C. Frick headed the 

 list with $1,500. 



We predicted that there would be 

 much shouting about the victory for wild 

 life and there was. The name of the 

 bill, at least, was saved ! The Bain Bill 

 has passed ! The Bain Bill has passed ! 



A new fund needed to further the vvild- 

 lifing! etc., etc. 



When it appeared that the quail were 

 thriving on Long Island quite near the 

 great city of New York, and were doing 

 so well that they appeared to prove that 

 shooting can be preserved without too 

 much wildlifing and game protecting, a 

 vast fund was raised to prohibit quail 

 shooting on Long Island. The Game 

 Breeder protested against this nonsense 

 since it would put an end to the quail 

 breeders and probably result in exter- 

 minating the quail. We have very little 

 money to spend in protecting field sports 

 and food production from their enemies, 

 but a matter of fifty dollars or so for 

 postage helped some in bringing out the 

 breeders and they quickly ran the wild 

 lifer and his able consulting naturalist. 

 Doctor Weeks, D. S. C, off the island. 



The quail have responded nicely to 

 the victory and last week we heard them 

 whistling on all four sides of the house 

 on the game preserve of the Long Island 

 Game Breeders' Association, a new place 

 started since the victory on Long Island. 



When the Migratory Bill was pending 

 (long, long ago it was), we suggested 

 to Mr. Burnham that since the bill said 

 you "must not" in such long-winded 

 phrases it would be wise to change it so 

 that in so far as game breeders are con- 

 cerned, it would say "you may." In 

 other words, we still had the idea that 

 it would be wise to encourage food pro- 

 duction and field sports and not to give 

 a new national police force the right to 

 join the more vicious elements of some 

 of the State Departments, who being un- 

 able to find much game elsewhere, had 

 formed the habit of raiding game farms 

 ( including the owners of a few birds in 

 back yards) and shaking them down for 

 various sums because they did not know 

 about the license to keep birds and for 

 other trivial offenses calculated to ham- 

 per the new industry. Mr. Burnham 

 informed us he would inquire if this item 

 of common sense could be inserted in 

 the bill and later we were told it could 

 not be. We are not common lobbyists 

 like the others who collect vast sums for 

 the wild lifing-game-protection enter- 



