THE GAME BREEDER 



185 



The farmers in America may be count- 

 ed on to back up the intelligent game 

 farmers and sportsmen who believe that 

 land owners should have the right to 

 produce profitably any species of plant 

 or animal on the farms which they own. 

 It is a very poor time to insist that it 

 must be criminal to produce food on the 

 farms. The danger is not that there will 

 be too many game farms and preserves 

 but that there will not be enough until 

 the farmers know what they can do and 

 how to do it. The State # Game Depart- 

 ments have a rare opportunity to dis- 

 seminate the information and to assist 

 those who would produce in every way. 

 The destroyers will be surprised to find 

 how good the shooting will become for all 

 hands when America becomes the 

 biggest game producing country in the 

 world. Even the market gunners are 

 permitted to shoot all the game they can 

 in the older countries. They do not 

 shoot the farmers' chickens or his game 

 any more than gunners in America shoot 

 on the farms without permission. 



FINISHING TOUCHES. 



To complete- the "More Game and 

 Fewer Game Laws" program now on 

 the way to a rapid finish, unless we are 

 much mistaken in the outlook, it is quite 

 necessary to amend the laws slightly in 

 some of the States. 



(1) They should be made to conform 

 to the U. S. law permitting the tak- 

 ing and sale of migratory birds and eggs 

 for breeding purposes and for food, omit- 

 ting the "otherwise than by shooting" 

 nonsense. The law says game farmers 

 and preserves, and of course shooting is 

 intended. 



(2) They should be amended so as to 

 permit the taking of grouse, quail and 

 other birds and their eggs for breeding 

 purposes under liberal regulations, the 

 charge being no greater than the license 

 charge to destroy a similar number of 

 birds — $1 or $2 to destroy, same charge 

 to trap and preserve would be about 

 right. 



(3) In States where the laws only en- 

 courage the production of foreign spe- 

 cies of game and of a few American 



game birds, which least need the breed- 

 ers' attention because of their abundance, 

 the laws should be amended so as. to 

 permit the breeding of all American 

 birds and game animals and their regular 

 sale when so produced by industry. 



(4) Game should be produced and 

 sold on posted farms. As Professor 

 Bailey of the N. Y. Agricultural College 

 well said at the outset of the "more 

 game and fewer game laws'' movement, 

 in a letter to the editor, "the farmer's in- 

 terests should be distinctly consulted" 

 in the making of game laws. 



The title to game on farms should be 

 in the farmers. Since they own a good 

 part of the land where game can be pro- 

 duced abundantly it is quite absurd to 

 hold out the inducement to them that 

 if they will produce the targets the State 

 will license an army of destroyers to 

 shoot up the farms. To advise the farm- 

 ers that the birds are valuable to agri- 

 culture is to advise them, under present 

 conditions and laws, that they should 

 seek amendments prohibiting the killing 

 of the valuable birds at all seasons. It 

 would be far better for all hands to pro- 

 vide that they can keep the birds profita- 

 bly plentiful and can profit by the abun- 

 dance either by a sale of game alive or 

 dead, or by arrangements with the 

 shooters to pay something for the right 

 to produce and shoot game. 



(5) The laws should recognize two 

 kinds of game — (1) game on public 

 lands and waters: (2) game on private 

 farms which for the most part have been 

 closed to sport. 



* 



OUTINGS AND INNINGS. 



Miss Huggins — My brother Jack has 

 been made bosun in the navy. What 

 are vou doing for your country ? 



Miss Peachblow — Oh, I'm going to be 

 the bosun's mate. 



More "Stuff." 



Several of the people who appeared be- 

 fore the Congressional Committee in* an 

 effort to make the District of Columbia a 

 food prohibition area take in more money 

 every season than the combined salaries 

 of the Governors of five or ten States. 



