478 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Our Future Game Supply—Are we Taking Right Steps to Assure it? 
No System of Laws, According to this Writer, has Brought Results which can be Regarded as Satisfactory 
HERE is a wide difference of 
opinion as to the best method 
for increasing the supply of 
game in this country, es¬ 
pecially in the more thickly 
populated states where the 
original stock is so sadly de¬ 
pleted that it appears an al¬ 
most impossible task to prevent the complete ex¬ 
termination of some of the most desirable species. 
One thing is evident to any person who is even 
slightly familiar with our game birds, and animals 
—and that is just this—that no system of game 
laws which has thus far been put in operation has 
brought results which even the most optimistic 
people can regard as having satisfactorily settled 
the question of a permanent supply of game. 
We all realize that something must be done 
besides shortening the open seasons, which are 
already of less duration than they should be 
naturally in this country with its almost unlim¬ 
ited possibilities in the way of natural breeding 
and feeding grounds for all sorts of game. 
Just what we should do is the important ques¬ 
tion, and it is imperative that whatever we decide 
upon should be done as soon as possible, while 
we still have a remnant of our native game to 
start with. 
All true Americans wish to see our own game 
perpetuated, but, in spite of the experiments which 
have been undertaken to propagate it, or to trans¬ 
plant it from one section of the country to an¬ 
other, we must admit that so far as practical re¬ 
sults are concerned we have made a failure of it. 
Experiments with our ruffed grouse and bob- 
white, for instance, show that although a few can 
be raised successfully in captivity it is well-nigh 
hopeless to expect that our covers can be re¬ 
stocked from artificially reared birds. 
Interested persons talk glibly enough about the 
successful raising of our native game in captivity, 
but few of them actually do it with any degree 
of success, and fewer still could do it on the 
large scale which is necessary for restocking pur¬ 
poses. 
If the laws could be enforced so that all our 
game farmers were obliged to depend on their 
own efforts in raising game for sale, and could 
not quietly trap wild game to help swell the ranks 
of their stock, more than one of them would be 
obliged to go out of business, admitting it to be 
a failure. 
Why does this state of affairs exist in this 
country to-day? Is it because our gunners think 
only of killing everything with fur or feather on 
it, without caring to take any trouble, expense or 
even thought for the future? 
Is our own game more difficult to propagate 
than the foreign partridges and pheasants which 
are reared with such excellent success on the 
game preserves in the old world? 
Is it because we have not made enough efforts 
in the direction of breeding our own game to 
By Horace O. Green. 
thoroughly understand it as yet? Or is it im¬ 
practical anyway, even if we did understand it? 
Why cannot our game birds be raised in large 
numbers as well as the foreign ones can? 
If we wait much longer we will not have any 
material to start with. It seems to me that the 
time is fast approaching when we will have to 
forbid the taking of ruffed grouse and bob-white 
at any time except for actual breeding stock by 
persons acting under State supervision. 
At the present time there are not enough game 
: v. -. '.A-' 
Is the Future Only Pictures? 
birds reared in captivity in this country to fur¬ 
nish anything like an adequate supply for shoot¬ 
ing purposes, and if wild birds are trapped and 
shipped from one state to another, you are simply 
furnishing sport in one locality by taking what 
rightfully belongs to the people of another dis¬ 
trict. 
It would be almost impossible to obtain a suf¬ 
ficient supply of bob-white to restock all the cov¬ 
ers which need it now. 
If things continue this way we will not have 
any stock for breeding left by the time the rear¬ 
ing of ruffed grouse and bob-white is well mas¬ 
tered here, and it looks as if the only way to 
save these birds is to put a continuous closed sea¬ 
son on them for a long period. 
This probably would have the desired result, 
for our scanty stock would increase under com¬ 
plete protection. 
The argument may be put forward that the 
gunners would shoot them illegally, but our ex¬ 
perience with imported pheasants shows that it is 
practical to make an attractive game bird quite 
abundant, even in thickly settled places, provided 
that they can have the protection of a close sea¬ 
son for a sufficient length of time. 
In some sections of Massachusetts the Chinese 
pheasants increased until their numbers reached 
the limit which the food supply would maintain 
during the winters. More birds could have lived 
in the same amount of territory if there had been 
any systematic way of providing a food supply 
during the time the snow covered the fields, as 
anyone who has had a little experience in feed¬ 
ing our wild pheasants can easily see. 
Although in our northern states this question 
of food supply would be an important factor in 
determining how many bob-white we could have, 
it would have little or nothing to do with the in¬ 
crease of the ruffed grouse, because the latter 
bird’s well-known habit of feeding on the buds 
of trees during J he time of deep snows would 
insure them plenty of food at a time when strict¬ 
ly ground-feeding birds might be threatened with 
a famine. 
If birds are turned out for stocking purposes 
and an open season follows within a year or two, 
it means simply that the gunners will make a 
larger bag for a season or two—and after that 
we will not have any more game left than we 
started with. 
We need a long closed season, but under pres¬ 
ent conditions any proposed law to that effect 
would be fought tooth and nail by gunners every¬ 
where. We must plan some way for allowing 
sportsmen to enjoy some legitimate shooting each 
season if we are to expect their support and co¬ 
operation on any measure for conservation of 
wild life. 
Would it not be profitable to try the experi¬ 
ment of stocking some of our territory with for¬ 
eign game birds, and after allowing them a rea¬ 
sonable length of time to become plentiful, and 
get accustomed to the change of climate and food 
which they would necessarily have to overcome, 
to give the sportsmen open seasons on the im¬ 
ported birds, and at the same time to declare a 
long closed season on our native birds? 
It has been proved that pheasants can be suc¬ 
cessfully introduced here, provided that they 
have a close season of sufficient duration to al¬ 
low them to become well established. 
Probably foreign partridges would do as well 
if they were intelligently handled. 
The mere tact of bringing over a lot of them 
and simply opening their coops and allowing 
them to escape without any thought as to the 
