T4-, lL& 
F^acts About Quail Breeding 
By J. C. Phillips 
Photographs by the Author 
Hen vs. Incubator — Some Practical Hints 
W ITH regard to game and its 
ownership, we are passing through 
a transition period. We have got far 
enough to know that, with our demo¬ 
cratic and frontier methods, the game 
cannot last, but we might have known 
this fifty years ago. Thus far the 
attempt has been made to balance the 
increase of guns by a decrease of the 
open season and the bag limits, with 
the result that legitimate sport is 
almost a joke. Fancy keeping a dog 
and gun in Massachusetts for the 
purpose of shooting six pheasants a 
year (two only in one day) and 
fifteen grouse. I do not include wood¬ 
cock, for they are too few to depend 
upon in most parts of this state. 
We have legislated the old New 
England grouse dog out of existence 
because the man that bred and 
trained him, the market shooting type, 
has had to give way before the fury 
of the law makers. But now a change is 
slowly taking place. The unprotected 
farmer is worse off than he ever was 
because the cheap motor car has 
brought the city to his very doors, 
and if he happens to be the unfor¬ 
tunate owner of a good grouse or 
pheasant cover, he is safe only if he 
digs himself a trench and stays in it for 
the first of the open season; yes, and 
takes his family and his domestic 
animals in after him. 
So far, I say, everything has gone 
against the farmer. His infrequent 
posting has been more or less ignored 
by types of men who, ignorant of 
farmers and farm life, think that 
once outside the radius of the police 
officer, they may help themselves to 
everything in sight. I am speaking of 
New England conditions only. 
As far as I can see, these conditions 
will continue to get worse until one of 
these two things happens: either the 
plague of irresponsible shooters will 
become so unbearable for the land 
owner that the rabid sentimentalists 
will have their say at last, and all 
shooting will be stopped by law; or 
else the farmer will learn the value of 
his birds, will be helped out by stricter 
trespass laws, and have something to 
say about his own property. 
In the latter case the average man 
will have to plan for his shooting. 
He will have to organize into clubs or 
groups of sportsmen and make arrange¬ 
ments with farmers for his fall cam¬ 
paign. This does not mean that we 
are in any danger of Anglicizing our 
shooting, the farms are too small for 
that, but it does mean that the owner 
of the land will own the non-migratory 
game and will be encouraged to breed 
and protect game, and do with it as 
he sees fit. If the land owner has no 
rights with game reared on his own 
land, then, I should like to ask, who 
has? 
At this point we are met by the old 
query: Then, where are the great army 
of poor men to get their shooting? 
The answer is, they won’t get it, not 
all of them, for it is ridiculous to 
expect something for nothing. Which 
is better, to have no game at all, and 
no sport except for those who can 
afford long trips; or a moderate 
amount of nearby shooting for a 
large number of men who are willing 
to sacrifice a little for it? Another 
way out would be to issue licenses 
only to responsible people, and to 
raise the price. Such a measure would 
have small chance of going through at 
present. 
Now some of us, sick and tired of 
the game law situation and the antics 
of the professional game law jugglers, 
are trying to find a way out through 
the propagation of game. By attempt¬ 
ing to make this popular, we hope not 
only to increase the game and to 
