154 



THE GAME BREEDER 



GAME FARMING vs. COMMERCIAL FISHING. 



By Fred D. Hoyt. 



After many years of experimenting 

 with the fish and game laws, in the great 

 State of California, the year 1914 finds 

 us as far from a solution of the question 

 as in the beginning. That our laws have 

 been beneficial, as to the conservation of 

 the fish and game, no one will question ; 

 but at the same time most of our law£ 

 as passed have been for the benefit of 

 the few, either for pleasure or profit, and 

 against the great majority of the people. 



Why not make the fish and game laws 

 an asset to the revejuie of the State? 



The Bowman Act as passed by the 

 last Legislature provided for game farm- 

 ing, or the raising of the different kinds 

 of wild game, as found in the State, and 

 many others that are not native; pro- 

 vided that you first take out a yearly li- 

 cense of twenty-five dollars, and pay 

 three cents a tag for every bird sold on 

 the market, thus deriving a revenue for 

 the State on a business that costs the 

 breeder from hundreds to thousands of 

 dollars to launch and finance. He pavs 

 about 2 per cent, taxes on this invest- 

 ment, which is in sight to be assessed 

 at all times, and with his twenty-five 

 dollar yearly license and three cent bird 

 tags, makes him pay pretty high inter- 

 est on the investment and income. 



The Fish and Game Commission have 

 been spending one half the revenue de- 

 rived from the sale of hunting licenses 

 for propagation and protection of the 

 fish, running half a dozen hatcheries, 

 many collecting stations and from the 

 Sissons Hatchery alone in 1912, planted 

 over six million salmon in the Sacra- 

 mento river. From Mill Creek station 

 eight and one-half millions, and from the 

 Federal stations twenty-four million 

 more were distributed. Striped bass, 

 shad, and other fish have been imported 

 and protected until now they form one 

 of our most prolific food supplies. 



The State started, financed and main- 

 tains this great fishing industry and is 

 paying sixty or seventy thousand dol- 

 lars a year, according to the 1912 printed 



report, for the benefit of a few million 

 dollar corporations, and four thousand 

 and five hundred men. Over half of this 

 number are aliens and 90 per cent, of 

 the balance had to be naturalized. This 

 the State has been doing for many years 

 and is still doing, making the sportsman 

 with his hunting and fishing license pay 

 for the making of million dollar corpor- 

 ations and the support of 4,500 aliens, or 

 near aliens, whose -only interest in the 

 industry is "catcha the fish and getta de 

 mon." Where will you find a business 

 or factory, giving their output to any- 

 one that comes along and picks them up. 

 Yet this is what the State is doing. The 

 Bowman Act allows a man to start in 

 the business of game farming if he first 

 obtains a license, which costs him twen- 

 ty-five dollars a year, pays his own 

 money for his equipment, raises his 

 quail, pheasants, ducks, and other birds, 

 and begs the privilege of paying the State 

 three cents on every bird he sells. On 

 the other hand we have the State, financ- 

 ing the business of propagating, protect- 

 ing, and importing the great food fish 

 supply, which they have done very suc- 

 cessfully, raising millions of pounds of 

 fish for the consumption of the people 

 and millions more which are exported 

 to all parts of the world. They have been 

 more than successful in maintaining this 

 great industry, financed by the sports- 

 man's money; but instead of making the 

 fisherman pay something for the fish the 

 State has raised, they give him the out- 

 put of this great fish factory for the ask- 

 ing, and then have to pay many deputies 

 and run patrol boats to make him ob- 

 serve the few laws governing the taking 

 of fish. Surely if we can make laws 

 making the game raiser pay so much a 

 head for his birds, which he has paid 

 for the raising of, we also can make 

 laws making the fisherman pay so much 

 for the fish which the State has raised. 

 There are enough deputies employed 

 by the Fish and Game Commsision to 

 man an office in every place where fish 





