October, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
547 
shipping them back into Quebec as if they had been 
taken outside that Province. As a rule, however, 
the officials of Ontario or New Brunswick, or New 
York, when they learn of a shipment of unstamped 
furs from Quebec, seize the fur and return it to the 
Quebec officials — praiseworthy comity. 
The growing scarcity of fur bearers is causing 
concern to scientific and game protective associa- 
tions, and not a few men are giving the subject seri- 
ous consideration. The question is one of economics, 
not of sentiment, and it is to be looked at from the 
standpoint of common sense. Here is a wild crop 
which should be so harvested that we may secure 
from it the best possible returns without unduly 
reducing the future yield. Since the crop is of very 
great value, it deserves careful handling. 
KILL CLEAN OR MISS CLEAN 
I N the discussions of the shooting that is possible 
1 with shotguns smaller than twelve-bore, one thing 
is noticeable : Very little is said about making the 
conditions less favorable to the shooter. 
The twelve-bore gun is the result of vast experi- 
ence in the world’s shooting grounds, but it has well- 
known limitations. Chief among these are the 
weight and bulk of gun and ammunition. The 
smaller bores are made somewhat lighter and less 
bulky, and a material reduction in both bulk and 
weight of ammunition has been attained, all witliin 
the bounds of safety. 
So far owners of these guns are content, but with 
this reduction too many of them also wish to retain 
the effectiveness of the twelve-bore. They insist that 
the small gun must kill all they shoot at, and are not 
satisfied to kill clean or miss clean, which should be 
the motto of every modern sportsman and is the 
motto of all those who shoot for recreation and sport 
and not for numbers. 
In other branches of sport the trend of sentiment 
is in the direction of the most accurate and durable 
implements obtainable. The angler’s tackle is fined 
down and half his pleasure is found in learning its 
possibilities and in exercising the best skill he can 
muster to offset its lack of mere strength. The big 
game hunter no longer burdens himself with a great 
weight of rifle and ammunition, and is chiefly con- 
cerned with a desire to either kill his game cleanly 
or let it escape with a whole skin. If the trophy of 
which he is proud be a bear skin, the fewer the bullet 
holes, the higher he values it. 
In the bird hunters who are content with fight 
bags this sentiment is equally strong, and they shoot 
small-bore guns with great satisfaction because of 
the merits enumerated above, and are also interested 
in exercising the greater skill required to attain 
these modest bags. With them it is more pleasant to 
recall one shot that required their best efforts than 
to think of great numbers of birds secured with 
heavy guns and stiff loads. 
We like to believe that an ever-increasing number 
of thoughtful upland bird shooters are inspired with 
this praise-worthy desire to take for their share the 
finest specimens, not the greatest numbers, and to 
confine their shooting to reasonable ranges, refrain- 
ing from long shots that tend to cripple rather than 
to kill. In this the small-bores are a success, and are 
to be heartily approved. 
Too manv persons, however, who are otherwise 
pleased with the sixteen and twenty-bores, try to at- 
tain with them results equal to those inherent in the 
twelves. In other words, to simplify their equip- 
ment, they would burden one horse and a small 
wagon with a load for two horses on a heavy vehicle, 
and expect to cover as many miles in a given time. 
BETTER, NOT MORE LAWS 
J7 OR a few years game and fish laws were new and 
untried, so that frequent changes were to be ex- 
pected, but now the efforts of our legislators may 
well be directed toward simplifying existing laws 
rather than to adding new and confusing sections 
to those we have. 
From time to time attempts have been made to se- 
cure uniform legislation, but the result in the main 
has not been encouraging. Legislators are chiefly 
concerned in pleasing local interests and ignore the 
fact that only by co-operation can the laws of differ- 
ent States be so harmonized that two important ob- 
jects may be attained. These are, the conservation 
of breeding birds and fish ; and the relief from legal 
complications of the law-abiding sportsman of one 
State who shoots in another, paying liberally for the 
privilege. 
We are almost daily asked for opinions on com- 
plications that arise through different interpreta- 
tions of vaguely worded sections in the game laws of 
various States. It is not remarkable that one not 
versed in legal terms may often place an erroneous 
construction on a clause. Game wardens and sports- 
men alike err in this respect, and there is ample 
proof that these men err not through intention, but 
because they are unfamiliar with untangling legal 
knots. In the final analysis there is apparent, there- 
fore, a need of laws couched in plain terms and shorn 
of all confusing verbiage, so that sportsman, warden, 
judge and lawyer, may understand them. 
THE FARMER AND THE GAME 
'YW'E have been told for these many years that the 
vv life of a farmer was a hard one, that it was. dif- 
ficult for him to make both ends meet, and that each 
year he was falling a little more behind. If this was 
ever true in the past, it is not true now. The aver- 
age farmer probably lives as easily and as well as 
the man in any other vocation of life — and is far 
more independent. 
Nevertheless, the farmer wishes to make all that 
he can out of his land. He knows that an acre of 
ground will produce so much corn, small grain or 
vegetables, so many pounds of beef or mutton ; he 
should know that an acre of water will produce so 
many pounds of fish. What he does not know is that 
an acre of land will produce a certain number of 
quail or partridges, and that by having these birds 
on the land along with his other crops, the land will 
produce more of these other crops. The quail will 
lessen the production of weeds on the acres over 
which it roams, leaving so much more space for 
plants that have an economic value, and will destroy 
the insects that devour his growing crops. More 
than that, the farmer who has plenty of birds on his 
place will find no difficulty in renting the shooting 
for a good price, or if he prefers, will have good 
shooting for himself and his boys. 
Little or nothing can be done to protect the game 
without the sympathy and assistance of the farmers, 
and until the farmer is genuinely interested in game 
protection and can be made to see that by protecting 
the game, he and his family are benefited, much of 
the talk about game protection is a waste of words. 
