New Trapping Laws for Tennessee 
Easy to put More Restrictive Laws on Book 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
After two recesses, our Tennessee lawmakers 
recently completed their 1915 session. 
I succeeded in getting enacted into laws two 
bills which I think will do much to protect fur¬ 
bearing animals in the counties to which these 
laws apply—Davidson, Robertson and Shelby. 
Being unwilling to “take chances” on securing 
the passage of these bills as State laws, I asked 
that they apply only to Davidson, the county in 
which I now reside, and Robertson, an adjoin¬ 
ing coufity (my native county), in which I fre¬ 
quently hunt. When the bills came up for vote, 
Representative McCormick, of Shelby county 
(Memphis), offered an amendment so extending 
their application as to include Shelby. The 
amendment was accepted and adopted. 
One of these bills, House Bill 309—now a law 
—makes it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine 
of $50 to set a steel trap, dead-fall, or similar 
device, which causes or is liable to cause linger¬ 
ing pain to the person or animal caught, therein 
or thereby. However, this law doe • not pro¬ 
hibit a person in trapping for a hawk, from set¬ 
ting a steel trap on top of a pole or placing a 
steel trap beside a dead fowl, provided the trap 
is taken up or closed at 6 p. m. every day. 
The other bill. House Bill 310—now a law— 
makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of 
$25, to kill a raccoon, skunk, fox, mink, opos¬ 
sum, or weasel, or to molest the den of such 
animal, upon the land of another, or to ship or 
attempt to ship or take or attempt to take such 
animal out of any of the counties above men¬ 
tioned, or to purchase or to offer to purchase 
such animal between February 1 and September 1. 
This law was drafted and designed especially to 
prevent digging out young foxes and offering 
them for sale. 
It is not a matter of general knowledge, but it 
is nevertheless true, that the only thing essential 
to the passage of a measure is for its author or 
champion to get his local Senator and Represent¬ 
ative to ask for its enactment. The Representa¬ 
tives and the Senators from other counties natu¬ 
rally assuming that the local Representative and 
Senator know what their people want, unhesi¬ 
tatingly vote for the measure. 
Unless the local Senator and Representative ap¬ 
prove a bill, its author or champion cannot hope 
to secure its passage. It may be introduced and 
passed in the Senate; but if the local Represent¬ 
ative does not favor it, he may kill it when it 
reaches the House. It may be introduced and 
passed in the House; but if the local Senator 
disapproves of it, he may kill it when it comes 
up in the Senate. 
I experienced no trouble whatever in getting 
these bills passed, for the simple reason that I 
prosecuted the matter methodically and system¬ 
atically. By a vigorous educational campaign, 
distributing literature containing citations to 
United States Government Reports in support of 
my contention, I convinced the farmers of David¬ 
son and Robinson counties that fur-bearing ani¬ 
mals are a distinct advantage to the farmer, be¬ 
cause they destroy field mice, moles, and the like 
—destroyers of crops. These farmers readilv 
and enthusiastically signed petitions urging the 
enactment of these bills. The enactment of such 
legislation can be secured only by such means- 
and measures as I used in this instance. It 
takes an array of facts, intelligently and plainly 
presented, to convince people of the necessity and 
wisdom of such legislation; and when convinced, 
they will readily put their names upon petitions- 
urging it. 
I did not forget to stress to the Legislators the 
humane feature of the matter—the duty and ne¬ 
cessity of enacting these measures in order to- 
secure an abatement of the cruelties of trapping, 
and the appeal from this standpoint was most 
effective. 
I am confident that these laws, applying to the 
counties named herein, will never be repealed. 
So far as I am concerned, I shall do anything 
within my power to keep them upon our statute- 
books. 
These good laws secured for Davidson, Robert¬ 
son and Shelby counties, Tennessee, can be se¬ 
cured for any county in the United States if the 
matter is handled intelligently and diplomatically. 
Jno. F. Draughton, 
June, 1915. Nashville, Tenn. 
DOVES VS. GAME BIRDS AND OTHERWISE. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
It is a strange fact that in the South, the home 
of sentiment, the center of culture and refinement, 
where men are actuated by the highest and noblest 
impulses known to man, the dove should be re¬ 
garded as a game bird. In many sections of the 
United States the taking or killing of doves is- 
forbidden at all times, at all seasons of the year. 
The principal food of doves consists of weed 
seeds such as are found in fields where crops are 
grown. The Department of Agriculture at Wash¬ 
ington recently examined the stomachs of two 
hundred and thirty-seven specimens of doves, the 
result of which proved that the dove as a weed 
seed destroyer is the most valuable in America. 
The stomach of one of the doves contained nine 
thousand and two hundred weed seeds, which 
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