RICE GROWERS TO OPEN DRIVE 
TO RID VALLEY OF DUCK PESTS 
Farmhouses Will Ser 
« - 
erve as Arsenals; Sharpshooters to Be 
Hired to Do Wholesale Killing 
j . 
iHICO, September 7. — Working 
through the food administra- 
tion and Secretary Franklin K. 
Lane, for the right to protect their 
crops from the inroads of game, rice 
growers of the Sacramento valley are 
not stinting themselves to bring the 
wild duck issue .before the Federal 
authorities. , , 
Following a meeting of 100 promi- 
nent rice growers of Yolo, Colusa, 
Glenn and Butte counties, a plan of 
campaign was outlined whereby ev- 
ery farmhouse in the rice fields will 
. . 
serve as an arsenal during the next 
three months and duck shooters will 
be hired at $4 per day to protect the 
rice cr^ps by killing wild ducks by 
the thousands. 
i % 
That the rice growers are relying 
on the Federal Government for sup- 
port in their new programme was 
evident from a series of questions 
asked by W. D’Egilbert, representing 
the food administration. D'Egilbert 
asked Dr. A. J. Wetmore of the 
biological survey if the Federal Gov- 
ernment could be depended upon for 
Immediate support and relief If the 
*• i ft 
the duck was doing extensive dam- 
age to the crops. v 
Wetmore answered by saying that 
he could not promise no relief, that 
he would report to his superior offi- 
cer on September 10 in Sacramento, 
and the question would then be put 
out of his hands. 
Wetmore expressed 'the belief that 
the rice men were entitled to pro- 
tect their crops from the inroads of 
wild ducks and upon this assertion 
the growers are now using rockets, 
bombs and shotguns to drive off the 
invaders. . >> ' * ~ ** 
The rice growers have appointed a 
committee to reach the food admin- 
istration and Secretary Lane, and to 
place before them the facts concern- 
ing duck depredations. The committee 
follows; Joseph L. Stevens of Sacra- 
mento, H. O. Jacobson of Chico, C. 
L. Donohue of Willows, W. Drubrow, 
Glenn county foc^d. administrator, and 
W. D'Egilbert of San Francisco. 
The committee plans to request the 
Federal Government to alter the game 
laws to permit rice growers to shoot 
and dispose of ducks on their own 
land before the State duck ■6UK>n 
findings of the Government were that opens. 
Original copied by 
Smithsonian Archives 
