FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



The man who quits when he gets enough, with plenty of game still in sight, s a real sportsman. 



A SPECIOUS PLEA. 

 W. E. Newbert and VV. H. Young of Sacra 

 mento recently enjoyed a trip to Norman, in 

 Glenn county, in quest of wild geese. They 

 report a fine day's snooting, despite the fact that 

 it rained heavily and that such a strong wind 

 was blowing the geese could hardly fly against it. 

 However, 173 brant fell to the guns. While there 

 the shooters were informed that the farmers 

 of that locality were employing men to herd the 

 mallard ducks off their sprouting grain, and were 

 slaughtering vast numbers of the birds, which 

 were allowed to stay on the ground where they 

 fell. — San Francisco Evening Post. 



Touching this matter, W. W. Young 

 writes as follows : 



Yes, we did kill 173 geese or brant in 

 what is termed one day's shoot; that is, we 

 shot 2 hours on the afternoon of Febru- 

 ary 21st, and killed 32 birds, and on the fol- 

 lowing morning, in about 5 hours bagged 

 141 more. Nearly all were small brant. 

 The remainder, 2 or 3 dozen, were what are 

 locally known as Mexican brant. 



Now, while offering no apology for our 

 large kill, I should like to explain the mat- 

 ter to you and the many readers of Rec- 

 reation. 



Norman is in one of the most productive 

 grain sections in California and is about 

 20 miles from the foothills where the geese 

 begin their long flight Northward in the 

 spring. The railroad divides the county 

 into 2 sections; to the West being innum- 

 erable grain fields, and to the East a 

 grand ridge 3 miles wide and many miles 

 in length. On this ridge the geese congre- 

 gate by millions, and generally remain sev- 

 eral weeks, feeding in the adjacent grain 

 fields until they have accumulated enough 

 fat to last them until they reach their next 

 stopping place in the North.. One can 

 readily see how destructive they must be to 

 newly sprouted grain. In fact, the farmers 

 in that neighborhood are compelled to hire 

 men to herd the geese off their grain, night 

 and day. One wholesale hardware firm in 

 this city formerly shipped every Saturday 

 to the large Glenn ranch, in the vicinity of 

 Norman, 20,000 to 50,000 rifle cartridges to 

 be used in driving the geese off the grain 

 fields. 



On our trip we saw from car windows 

 one continuous flock of geese on the ridge, 

 extending nearly 10 miles. At one time 

 during our stay, I saw 5 flocks of geese in 

 the air at one time, in as many different 

 directions, that would have easily covered. 

 20 acres each. 



Doc Stuart, Abe Crump and Claude 

 Kager, all thorough sportsmen, men who 

 would go out of their way at any time 



to apprehend a violator of the game laws, 

 had been shooting geese several years on 

 what is known as Mame prairie. Farmers 

 in the vicinity of Norman invited them to 

 settle there, which they did. They were 

 given permission to enter all fields in that 

 vicinity; the farmers furnished them horses 

 and hauled firewood for them. 



Stuart and his party have a large num- 

 ber of live geese for decoys, and many wire 

 forms for stooling dead birds. The men 

 are all expert goose callers, and have re- 

 duced goose shooting to a science. The 

 birds are shot from pits dug in the prairie, 

 and the first shot is never fired until the 

 birds are within 20 yards, so few cripples 

 are sent away. The game is taken to 

 camp; the guest is given all he desires and 

 the remainder is shipped to the San Fran- 

 cisco market. 



I am told that the constant shooting has, 

 to the joy of the farmers, caused the birds 

 to leave for the North 2 or 3 weeks, earlier 

 than usual. 



Here in California we do not think 

 enough of wild geese to protect them, and 

 one is at liberty to at any time kill all 

 he can. In spite of that, they were more 

 numerous last year than they have been 

 since the Stuart party began shooting. 



Will H. Young, Sacramento, Cal. 



Mr. Young presents what on its face ap- 

 pears a case of justifiable homicide, but 

 there is still left behind his defense and 

 that which he puts up for his neighbors, the 

 intent of excessive slaughter. If, as he 

 claims, the only object in this shooting was 

 the protection of the crops, that could be 

 accomplished just as well by firing blank 

 cartridges at the birds or by chasing them 

 with dogs or on horseback, or even on foot, 

 as by killing them. It is not necessary in 

 order to save the crops that men should 

 bury themselves in pits and lie closely con- 

 cealed until the unsuspecting geese and 

 brant are within 20 yards of them, then 

 rise up and pour murderous volleys of 

 heavy shot into them. If the real object 

 was to save the grain, why should not the 

 men sit up or stand up or walk about when 

 they saw the birds coming? If they would 

 do this the birds would not come anywhere 

 near them. The farmers who are spend- 

 ing money for ammunition evidently have 

 their eye on the mighty dollar which they 

 can get from the market when they send 

 the birds in. Whether they get back more 

 money than they pay for the ammunition I 

 do not know, but they could doubtless em- 



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