Su&Aested Changes for N. Y, Game Laws 
P REVENTING TRESPASS.—A re¬ 
cent number of The R. N.-Y. con¬ 
tained a letter by the Hon. Edward G. 
Whitaker, Justice of the Supreme 
Court, on the foolish and ineffective 
game laws of New York State. He 
pointed out that trespass could not be 
prevented under the present laws, and 
advocated such changes as would ef¬ 
fectively prevent trespass upon farms 
and private lands by so-called sports¬ 
men. criticizing Commissioner Pratt 
for his failure to appreciate the prob¬ 
lems involved iu the preservation of 
our rapidly diminishing game supply. 
Commissioner Pratt, in his reply, which 
appeared on page 1170, says that the 
game of the State belongs to all of its 
citizens, and that if “the owner has 
not the ambition to put up signs. I 
think it indicates that he does not de¬ 
sire the protection which is given him 
under the law.” 
LACK OF SYMPATHY.—Commis¬ 
sioner Pratt evidently believes that if 
farms are not posted everyone has the 
right to overrun them in pursuit of 
game, and that posting under the 
present law affords adequate protec¬ 
tion. The farmers of the State realize 
that posting is of no real value, as the 
first would-be trespasser tears down 
one or two signs, and those who follow- 
trespass with impunity. So far as T 
know, the Commissioner has not pro¬ 
ceeded against a single trespasser on 
posted lands, although such trespass is 
a misdemeanor, and it is clearly his 
duty to do so. 
DOES GAME INCREASE? —His 
statement that game is on the increase 
scarcely corresponds with the declara¬ 
tion he made at the last dinner of the 
Game Breeders' Association that de¬ 
spite the fact that lie had organized a 
most efficient uniformed force of game 
protectors, which last year cost the 
State $325,361.31, our wild game was 
rapidly disappearing, until there now 
remained practically only a few cotton¬ 
tailed rabbits. The litter failure of 
Commissioner Pratt to appreciate the 
problems with which lie is dealing, and 
which may account for liis apparent 
lack of sympathy with the farmers, is 
shown on .page 42 of his annual report 
for the year 1910 where, after giving 
the numbers of each species of so-called 
game taken by hunters in the year 
191S, in Washington County, presum¬ 
ably the banner game county of the 
State, he says: “It is thus clearly ap¬ 
parent that the State’s system of game 
protection is thoroughly sound as an 
economic policy.” Ilis report shows 
that the number of licenses issued in 
Washington County was 2,334 ; that the 
total number of game birds killed, par¬ 
tridges, woodcock, quail, pheasants, 
ducks, snipe, rail and coots was onlv 
1.195. 
COMPARISON WITH EUROPE.— 
" ushington County is approximately 
one-tenth the size of that portion of 
France which was occupied by the Ger¬ 
mans. According to reports recently 
published in the daily press, the Ger¬ 
man Government must deliver to the 
french Government six million par¬ 
tridges, two million pheasants and 
enormous numbers of other species of 
s.ime for the purpose of restoring the 
bleeding stock destroyed in this region 
1’.' the Germans during their occupancy. 
A pro rata breeding stock for Washington County 
"ouUl include 600,000 partridges, and 200,000 phea- 
<iii(n. Comparison, based on the foregoing figures, 
makes, it apparent that although Commissioner 
cut’s system of game protection appears to him 
to he thoroughly sound as economic policy,” it is 
M best only a small fraction of one per cent efficient. 
Ui> shows that the public is receiving small benefit 
mi the large sums which the Commissioner is 
.1 Calf with Good Table Manners. F'kj. 855 
can sell it at a profit, which is pre¬ 
cisely the reason why he produces 
chickens, ducks and other domestic 
animals. 
LAWLESS HUNTERS.—Since the 
introduction of the pheasant the 
farmers of this State have suffered 
enormously from the depredations 
from so-called sportsmen who overrun 
their farms, break down tlieir fences, 
shoot their chickens, ducks and other 
domestic fowls, and steal their fruit 
and vegetables whenever opportunity 
offers. The farmers with whom 1 
have discussed this problem say that 
this lawlessness has become so wide¬ 
spread and acute that, it must be 
stopped, and that they must possess 
their farms in peace. The remedy is 
simple—amend Section 365 of the Con¬ 
servation Law to read as follows: 
t Section 365. Fish and game protected. 
No person other than the owner, or a 
person having the written permission of 
the owner to do so. shall take or disturb 
fish, birds or quadrupeds on any private 
lands or trespass thereon with or having 
in his possession a rod. gun or any imple¬ 
ment or means by which fish, birds or 
quadrupeds may be disturbed, taken or 
killed. 
Such a law would not only relieve 
the farmer, but would afford far 
greater protection for our game than 
the State protection for which Com¬ 
missioner Pratt paid out over $325,000 
last year. 
ENCOURAGE THE FARMERS.— 
Protection alone will not produce an 
abundance of game. As an encourage¬ 
ment to do so, the farmers should be 
permitted to sell their male pheasants, 
under regulations limiting the sale to 
owners or tenants of the lands upon 
which they are killed. With such com¬ 
mon sense game laws the farmer would 
he protected and game would soon be 
abundant. Unless our laws are radi¬ 
cally changed the next generation will 
know our rapidly vanishing game birds 
only as the present generation knows 
the American buffalo. . • 
IIEX BY W. BRIGHAM. 
How We Make Sorghum 
The Fisherman's Gride. Fig. 55(1 
annually expending. The reasons why there is an 
abundance of game iu England. France, Germany 
and Hungary and we have almost none are not 
obscure. There the laws do not require farmers to 
post their lands with notices which they cannot 
effectively maintain in order to keep off trespassers, 
and the farmer is assureu that the game which he 
has produced upon Ids laud cannot be killed without 
his permission, and that when he has killed it he 
S TRIPPING THE CANE.—First, wr 
nearly always strip the cane 
though we have made it a few time* 
without, and couldn’t tell the differ¬ 
ence. but we prefer to be on the safe 
side, and the fodder makes the best, of 
feed for cows. We usually strip the 
fodder off by hand, allowing it to fall 
as it will, and then haul in like hay, 
but some tie in bundles. We consider 
ibis labor for nothing, as it carries just 
as nicely loose. Borne people prefer a 
paddle made of thin board about 2 y s 
t'eet long for stripping the cane. Be¬ 
ginning at the top they strike down, 
first one side, then the other. This is 
just a matter of preference. If a frost 
threatens before sorghum is made up 
we strip and allow to stand, as the 
frost does not injure it when blades 
are off. 
GRINDING.—When ready to make 
the cane is cut and laid in straight 
piles, and the heads cut off: then it is 
hauled to mill and piled in one pile. 
We grind by horsepower, and as juice 
runs from mill it is allowed to run 
through a bucket of charcoal. The 
bucket has a round hole cut in the bot¬ 
tom. This bucket is placed on two 
clean boards over a large tub. On the boards is laid 
an old sack, and the juice is strained through this. 
When a tub is full it is poured through a flour sack 
into a barrel, kept covered and carried to the pan 
by bucketfuls, the bottom being discarded, as It has 
more or less sediment, despite all straining. One 
neighbor throws a couple of handfuls of clay in a 
barrel of juice. He says this settles all sediment to 
the bottom of the barrel; then he strains juice be- 
