30 



THE GAME BREEDER 



T*?f Game Breeder 



Published Monthly 



Edited by DWIGHT W. HUNTINGTON 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 1915 



TERMS: 



10 Cents a Copy— $1.00 a year in Advance. 



Postage free to all subscribers in the United States. 

 To All Foreign Countries and Canada, $1.25. 



The Game Conservation Society, Inc., 

 publishers, 150 nassau st., new york 



D. W. Huntington, President, 



F. R Peixotto, Treasurer, 



J. C. Hcntington, Secretary. 



Telephone, Beekman 3685. 



VALUABLE LESSONS. 



Several lessons may be learned from 

 reading Mr. Barton Warren Evermann's 

 excellent paper, "An Attempt to Save 

 California Elk." These valuable wild 

 food animals were tremendously abund- 

 ant in California not long ago. We re- 

 member reading stories of how the ranch- 

 men easily procured the animals with the 

 lasso. The development of agricultural 

 operations and the increase in population 

 seemed to indicate that the California 

 elk were doomed to extinction. As they 

 became rare the temptation to shoot them 

 on sight increased. Jim Paine, the old 

 Suisun marsh hunter, claims that he 

 killed the last tule elk ever seen on the 

 Suisun marsh. He was sculling up the 

 Cordelia Slough, when, near what is now 

 Teal Station, he saw a large cow elk 

 plunge into the slough just ahead. Scull- 

 ing alongside, he killed the animal with 

 a heavy load of duck shot. Many others, 

 no doubt, can claim to have killed the. 

 last elk in their neighborhood. 



It is most fortunate that Mr. Henry 

 Miller, of the Miller & Lux ranch, deter- 

 mined that the elk should be preserved 

 on the property of his company. No 

 game laws would have saved the animals 

 had it not been for the orders given by 

 Mr. Miller to preserve the elk. It ap- 

 pears from the story that the elk are 

 very destructive in farming regions. 



Miller & Lux estimated that the animals 

 they preserved did from $5,000 to $10,- 

 000 worth of damage every year to the 

 alfalfa and Egyptian corn fields and to 

 the fences. It is evident that the farm- 

 ers should not be required to preserve 

 elk at such cost on their farms as sport- 

 ing animals for licensed trespassers. 



We learn from the article, also, that 

 the elk multiply rapidly when they are 

 properly looked after; that they can be 

 distributed to restock public parks and 

 private ranches where the owners are 

 willing to have elk for sport or for prof- 

 it. When Miller & Lux decided to dis- 

 pose of their elk they properly made the 

 offer upon condition that the animals 

 should be put only in places affording a 

 favorable environment and where they 

 would probably breed. 



Elk as well as deer can be kept plenti- 

 ful in public parks where the people are 

 permitted to enjoy a limited amount of 

 regulated shooting. They can be made 

 very abundant both for sport and for 

 profit on private ranches now that the 

 breeders industry is encouraged by leg- 

 islation. The people of California should 

 learn to keep restrictive game laws from 

 interfering with game breeding. The elk 

 and game birds owned by the public on 

 public lands and waters may well be pro- 

 tected by laws limiting the bag and the 

 season and prohibiting shooting, when 

 this seems to be necessary. Game owned 

 by individuals within their own fences 

 should not be governed by laws which 

 make it not worth while to preserve the 

 game. 



We predict it will not be long before 

 the California markets are abundantly 

 supplied with venison and quail, grouse, 

 and the other desirable wild foods. The 

 State has an excellent game Commission 

 which understands the subject. 



QUAIL AT THE BORDER. 



Most of our live quail now come from 

 Mexico. Last year the Biological Sur- 

 vey decided to hold quail at the border in 

 order to see if they had any diseases. No 

 surer way of giving diseases to quail can 

 be devised than holding them in small 

 crates in a hot climate. As we predicted 



