74 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
CO-OPERATIVE GAME LAWS. 
H EREWITH is given a comparative table of Close 
Seasons for,all kinds of Game and Fish in each 
State of the Union where protective laws exist, so that 
the reader can determine at a glance, without the trouble 
of hunting through volumes of codified laws, just 
what particular bird, animal, or fish is excepted, or pro¬ 
hibited from being caught or killed, at any given month 
in the year. Its usefulness and labor-saving charac¬ 
ter are apparent. He who examines carefully, however, 
cannot fail to see how strangely the laws conflict as respects 
the game of any given latitude, even in States that are con¬ 
tiguous and homogeneous in their flora and fauna. The 
times and seasons often vary several weeks in localities that 
lie within the same geographical zone and between the 
same parallels of latitude. It is apparent at once what op¬ 
portunity is thus given to those who desire to evade the 
laws, either in the killing or selling of game, while to the 
well disposed and most earnest advocates of protection the 
jumble of heterogeneous and interminable legislation ren¬ 
ders it. almost impossible to keep in mind, or even deter¬ 
mine, when and where any particular kind of game is in 
season or out of season. More than this, within the gen¬ 
eral law of individual States are hundreds of special pro¬ 
visions, excepting this pond and that stream, and this 
county and that township, so that there are prohibited dis¬ 
tricts, and close seasons within close seasons, that render 
the confusion worse confounded, and defeat the efforts of 
those who seek the general welfare. And at each session 
of every Legislature some well meaning and enthusiastic 
advocate of protection clamors for additional and more 
stringent measures, so that in the midst of too much legis¬ 
lation and too much protection we are likely to defeat the 
ends we strive for. 
It is obvious that the only remedy lies in co-operative 
legislation, and in a simplified code. Nature has singularly 
defined her geographical belts, and designated the animal 
and organic life that dwells within them. As certainly are 
the boundaries of the range of the deer and the habitat 
of the trout defined as are the varieties of food upon 
which they feed. Germs Virginianus is not found north of 
a certain latitude, nor the Balmo fontinalis south of a cer 
tain latitude. The same is true of the ruffed and pinnated 
grouse, the quail, the turkey, the moose, and the antelope. 
What we need is one general enactment, that shall apply to 
each of these geographical zones alike throughout its 
breadth and extent, or at least to extended sections of these 
zones. Game laws for Ohio need not be the same as for 
Maine but the laws protecting game in Maine, Vermont, 
and New Hampshire should be precisely alike, as the laws 
for Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois should be the same for 
those particular States. To the Pacific coast the law of the 
Atlantic would not apply, for the climates and seasons are 
different. Local laws would have to be made for the moose 
and the big horn sheep, for their range is limited and fixed. 
For the nomadic buffalo, which ranges through many de- 
urees of latitude, and whose periods of coming and going 
are as regular and well known as the rotation of the' plan¬ 
ets special and peculiar legislation is required. Never¬ 
theless the gener 1 principle, as indicated, can be easily 
applied. Under these provisions there would be no need 
of local or neighborhood laws, for the game being thor¬ 
oughly protected throughout the whole Stale, the depleted 
And barren districts of that State would in time be replen¬ 
ished and restocked. Different laws for contiguous States 
are irrational, and.as at present constituted they are actu¬ 
ally aiding to drive out and exterminate the game instead 
of preserving it. If September is a close season in one 
State and October in the next adjoining, no end of trouble 
must’ result; witness the case of the governor of Missouri, 
who when shooting near the border, Happened to cross the 
line’into Kansas, and was very properly arrested for an 
infringement of the law of the latter. There should be no 
difference between the laws of Kansas and Missouri, for 
their climate and latitude and game are essentially the 
Sa We have now stated the facts and the necessities of the 
case. We propose a practical application of the remedy, 
premising .(and taking the highest Luglisli authoiity as 
judges of the question) that “it is a known fact that ail 
the best measures for the protection of game, the most ju¬ 
dicious, not only for the sportsmen but lor those who gam 
their subsistence by shooting and fishing, must always ema¬ 
nate from those who shoot and fish for their pleasure. 
Ordinarily those who legislate, those who make the laws, 
are not practical sportsmen, or so well informed off the 
subject as to serve advantageously as scientific economists. 
It is proper, therefore, that the drafts of any hill or bills 
to be submitted to future legislative bodies should emanate 
from the sportsmen, naturalists, and fish etlturists of the 
country who make our game animals, their habits, their 
protection, their pursuit, and their propagation a constant 
and intelligent study. Tiie remedy, then, and its applica¬ 
tion lies in the co-operation of ail the scientific and, accli- 
matin 0, societies and sportsmen s clubs in the Union, and 
we are herewith encouraged by the Game Protective So¬ 
ciety of New York and the American Fish Cultunsts’ As¬ 
sociation of the United States (to both of which the scheme 
has been presented) to lay before all these clubs and associ¬ 
ations the importance of calling at an early da) a conven¬ 
tion of sportsmen, naturalists, and cullurists to select a 
board of arbitration or reference, which shall prepare a 
suitable draft of a law to be pressed -for passage upon the 
legislatures of the respective States, this reference to be 
final, the Legislature to sit as a committee of the whole, and 
the bill to be either rejected or accepted unconditionally. 
Legislators who have the interests of the country at heart 
would not be jealous of their prerogatives in such case; 
indeed, they should be gratified to be relieved of the ardu¬ 
ous labor and responsibility of so important a measure. 
We have received a great number of letters urging this 
movement for a general convention, details of which will 
soon be published, and we have no doubt that all clubs will 
readilv fall in with W 
At the convention of Fish Culturists in February, we 
first introduced this scheme to their attention, and a reso¬ 
lution in conformity therewith was unanimously adopted 
by them as respects “fish and birds,” the word “animals” 
being inadvertently omitted.* 
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