THE GAME BREEDER 



153 



in Utah. It is said that the Kansas 

 ducks may have suffered from some bac- 

 terial affection. The bulletin can be pro- 

 cured from the Superintendent of Docu- 

 ments, Government Printing Office, 

 Washington, D. C, at 10 cents per copy. 



There are many excellent duck clubs 

 which own preserves in the affected 

 areas and since a considerable outlay of 

 money will be needed to provide fresh 

 water in some of the marshes, we be- 

 lieve it would be wise for the clubs to 

 employ gamekeepers and to rear large 

 numbers of ducks. The shooting can be 

 much improved and a sale of a big lot of 

 ducks would no doubt pay the cost of 

 rearing them and supply all or a good 

 part of the funds needed to keep the 

 water fresh and the ducks in good health. 

 The markets of Utah should be kept full 

 of wild ducks and the Eastern markets 

 will eagerly take all the ducks offered. 



Many of the Eastern clubs now sell 

 wild ducks to hotels and to the markets 

 and in so doing they become of great 

 economic importance and perform a pub- 

 lic service, highly commendable just now 

 when food production is important and 

 necessary. There often is a prejudice 

 against clubs which monopolize good 

 shooting grounds but this rapidly disap- 

 pears when it becomes known that the 

 clubs are producing more game than they 

 shoot and that much of it is shot outside 

 of the preserves. 



This prejudice even made its appear- 

 ance in the vicinity of one of the clubs 

 organized by members of the Game Con- 

 servation Society, although the ducks 

 were produced about an artificial pond. 

 When, however, it became known that 

 over a thousand ducks went out from 

 the place in a season and that many of 

 these, besides a big lot of pheasants and 

 quail, were shot by outsiders, the preju- 

 dice quickly disappeared and the club 

 became popular. 



WHY NOT BREED QUAIL AND 



GROUSE? 



All naturalists and all sportsmen know 

 that it is a very easy matter to introduce 

 grouse and quail on protected areas and 



quickly to make these splendid foods so 

 plentiful that they could be sold in the 

 markets as cheaply as the European 

 grouse and partridges are sold in the 

 foreign markets. 



The pheasants easily are reared in big 

 numbers and since the laws were amend- 

 ed a few years ago permitting game 

 breeders to produce pheasants without 

 fear of arrest the pheasants have become 

 so abundant in many places that it will 

 be no longer necessary to send money 

 abroad to purchase pheasants. 



Why should American breeders be 

 compelled to send thousands of dollars 

 annually to Mexico for small quail when 

 the larger Northern birds easily could 

 be produced on American farms in suffi- 

 cient numbers to supply the demands of 

 all those who wish to purchase quail for 

 breeding purposes for sport or for food? 

 It seems nonsensical for the laws to say 

 that money only can be sent to Mexico 

 for quail just as it was sent a few years 

 ago to other foreign countries in pay- 

 ment for pheasants. 



Quail shooting has been ended, proba- 

 bly forever, in many States. Some quail 

 survive in parts of these States but they 

 are of no value either for food or for 

 sport and they are not of any appreciable 

 value as insect destroyers since there are 

 not enough of them. 



A little spraying of the plants will 

 do more good in a few minutes than the 

 few quail which survive will do in a year. 

 Granting that the quail are beneficial to 

 agriculture, why should not the State 

 permit and encourage the farmers to 

 make and to keep them profitably plen- 

 tiful? Why encourage the breeding of 

 fish and prevent the production of quail? 

 The answer can be expressed in three 

 words: "Nonsense! Nonsense! Non- 

 sense !" 



Why should a State game department 

 or a State legislature persist in being 

 nonsensical ? 



WHY NOT MORE GAME? 



