n 
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Dodge Land Goni>anj% 
Chico, Oiilifoniia. 
July 20, 1S18. 
If . 
-If,': « 
honorable Clarence* E. Lea, ^ ■. 
/ • I,'' 
0/0 House of HeprEsontativos, 
Mashington, iD. G. 
Dear Sir: 
ETfSN 
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ay 
■m • 
• Tith regard contemjplated legislation affect ii3g migratory game bii'ds, 
Y/e -dosiro to submit for your consideraficn certain facts reg:irding our 
experience during the last tv/o seasons in* the Cacrencnto Valley, *;7ith jpar- 
ticular reference to v/ild ducl^s destroying crops, of rice# 
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In the fall of 1216 v;e suffered loss due to the duclzs coning into 
the fields at night and-eating rice,.. but being operators in a new section 
somewhat distant from the older rice growiiig section, the greater portion 
of the birds not being aware of the ne^7 feeding grovaids passed over our 
fields to land further^ east or saith. 
Beginning with September 1217, ducks, more particularly of the 
Teal variety began coming in in large nvuEbors to feed on the slightly ma- 
tured rice'; the inroads being moat p>articularly noticed where the birds 
l)ad also been found in 1916’. FollCkVing a heavy storm on the racific Coast, 
the mallards came = In in enormous flights, three flights arriving within 
a few hours one evening were estimated to contain 750,000 birds. 
4 
^ During the month of October and Lovercber the oiioimous number of 
ducks^'ceming ‘Tn necessitated 'bur large' r-f’fnbers of 'rert with 
guns, slcj-’rockets and sundry devices to scare off the Llrds, but these ef- ^ 
forts wore only partially successful. In some instances a flock of ir^il- 
lard arriving during the middle of the ni^t v/ould comx>letely consume the 
B^fp'orop on an area rangeing from a few acres, five or six, to fifteen or 
twenty acres. In 'one ''instance , a patch of forty acres vra,s compjlotely con- 
sumed in one night. In another instance about fifteen^acres of rice 
wliich had been cut and shocked \.-ere consumed, the ducks' tearing doiivn the 
shocks and also roaring apart t]je bundles. • ^ . . .. 
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uQ estimated the loss of rice incurred last season due to the de- ^ 
predation qf^ the ducks to have had a market value of fifty thousand dol- 
lars. This loss had to be distributed on an area of 6500 acros. 
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