108 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
No one of the present day will question that the artificial propaga- 
tion of our fish has not been more than successful in every way, and 
the same field is wide open for the artificial propagation of game 
birds with the results in sight at all times. 
The rich sportsmen of San Francisco are today paying more for a 
duck pond to shoot on than it would cost to raise four times the number 
of ducks they have a chance to shoot at; and instead of taking home a 
mixed string of spoon bill, teal and mud hens, they could show to their 
friends a limit of big fat mallards at half the cost. New York and 
Massachusetts gun clubs by the score are raising more ducks, quails 
and pheasants on their preserves than they are shooting, the surplus 
being sold on the market to help pay expenses. This is conservation. 
This is conservation, when the production is more than the con- 
sumption, and it is the only answer to the question. A few more facts 
and I will close. 
There was never a gun made that exterminated our game; it has 
always been man, The club and the net were far more deadly among 
the passenger pigeon than the most modern automatic could have 
been. It is simply man; not gun. Game laws, game wardens, arrests, 
convictions and fines are necessary for the protection of the game; but 
for many years we have tried to restore our wild life by legislation; is 
it not now time that we follow the same wise plan adopted by the 
different commissions in the conservation of our fish? 
If you can buy your birds cheaper from, the game farmer than you 
can raise them on your state game farms, or by contract (as you in 
Oregon have done), then do away with the state game farm; buy your 
birds of the private breeder; spend half the money derived from the 
sale of hunting licenses for game birds and you will have struck a 
method of conservation that will be popular with the three million 
hunters of the country, who will never object to the money so spent, 
as they can see results and are getting something for their money. Do 
this and let the rich gun clubs of the coast follow the lead of their 
New York brethren and raise some of the birds they are killing. 
The conservation of our fish came through artificial propagation. 
The restoring of our wild game birds must come in the same way. 
The game farmer solves this and the greater problem — game for every- 
body. As man was the destroyer, so must he be the restorer. 
FRED D. HOYT, Hayward, Cal. 

