FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 30, 1907. 
49 6 
Game Conditions in Arkansas. 
Bald Knob, Ark., March 23. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: If good has been accomplished by 
the Arkansas game laws, it is largely due to the 
provision which makes transportation com¬ 
panies liable for taking game out of the State, 
and the further fact that Arkansas has but two 
or three towns of sufficient size to be available 
as markets. In the ’80s, when protective legis¬ 
lation was a novelty, there were numerous con¬ 
victions for deer killing in the close season, but 
investigation of the individual cases generally 
showed that information was lodged against the 
offender, not so much because of a laudable de¬ 
sire to uphold the laws, but rather in the pur¬ 
suance of personal spite and to balance ac¬ 
counts on some old score. In other instances 
the informer belonged to that omnipresent and 
omnipernicious class of obtrusively upright 
citizens, whose greatest delight is in “grand 
stand” plays, and who, in a word, cared neither 
for the law’s majesty nor the game, but merely 
saw and improved the opportunity to win fresh 
importance in his neighbors’ eyes. Prosecu¬ 
tions so brought about are worse than useless 
as object lessons to communities that are pre¬ 
disposed—as the majority of Arkansas com¬ 
munities were, and are still—against the statutes 
transgressed. The informers were frequently 
disciplined for their pains, with more or less 
severity, but always convincingly. They have 
ways of their own of doing these things in the 
southwest. And in consequence, though deer 
hunters grew to exercise more caution in har¬ 
vesting their close season venison, their neigh¬ 
bors acquired the habit of seeing little and 
talking less. 
To an unbiased observer it would appear that 
the outcry against nonresident hunters was taken 
up largely as a relief from this enforced re¬ 
straint. The Arkansas backwoodsman believes 
in talking, and it goes hard with him to know 
of things that must remain untold. As a matter 
of common interest it should be known that 
Bill Sands killed a big buck at the lick last 
night, or that Bob Dugger’s little Jimmy 
knocked down four turkey chicks at one shot; 
but to spread the news broadcast might lead 
to unpleasant results. It is different when a 
hunter from Tennessee or Illinois pitches his 
tent by the roadside and institutes an eager 
quest for game where there is none. The whole 
country must have tidings of this! The natural 
resources of the State are endangered—and 
there’s a bare possibility that some other herald 
of impending disaster may be first in the saddle. 
The need of a close season for deer came 
to be grudgingly acknowledged in time, for rea¬ 
sons that the least considerate could not wholly 
disregard. When one is returning empty- 
handed from an all-day’s hunt, he is likely to be 
in the proper mood for meditation, repentance, 
and the framing of good resolutions for the 
future. There was no use of getting up a 
deer-drive where there were no deer to be 
driven; and when this evident fact came to be 
generally recognized a first point was gained 
toward the eventual support of all game pro¬ 
tective laws. As a matter ot fact, deer killing 
continued just the same, but in an incidental 
way. The squirrel hunter was everywhere 
abroad in the land, and he never intentionally 
missed a chance at either deer or turkey, no 
-matter what the time or season. If there was a 
difference in favor of the game, it was that 
in lethality between buckshot and No. 6s, and 
-there is yet to be considered the fact that the 
small-bore muzzle-loading rifle was still popular 
in the southwestern woods ten or fifteen years 
ago. 
Prior to 1895 the Arkansas market hunter had 
regarded small game as quite beneath his 
notice, though occasionally he would “get busy” 
among the ducks when there was an unusually 
heavy flight. But somewhere around the date 
mentioned the discovery was made that there 
was money in squirrels at a dollar a dozen, pro¬ 
viding they could be bagged in sufficient num¬ 
bers—and on this last score there was never the 
slightest suspicion of doubt. In those days, 
before there was such a thing as killing squirrels 
for revenue only, the country boy with his 
Belgian double-barrel thought it hard luck if 
he failed to bag four or five around the corn¬ 
fields before breakfast. In September, when 
the nuts first began ripening, as many as ten 
or twenty squirrels were sometimes to be found 
in one hickory or pecan tree, and the same 
remarkable sight may yet occasionally be seen 
in localities so far from railroad stations that 
they have escaped the market hunter’s atten¬ 
tion. With game so abundant the earnings of 
good squirrel killers would average $3 or $4 
a day during the fall months—I know of six 
dozen squirrels being killed by one man in little 
more than half a day—and with favorable con¬ 
ditions of weather at any season the business 
paid better than day’s work on the farm or in 
a sawmill. A few of the squirrels were dis¬ 
posed of in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Pine 
Bluff and the other larger towns, but the greater 
number were shipped to St. Louis and Memphis. 
When the law was passed prohibiting the expor¬ 
tation of game, squirrels, rabbits and bears were 
excepted from its provisions—no one seems to 
know why. The Arkansas bear is pretty hard 
to find nowadays. Not one hunter • in a hun¬ 
dred has ever met one in the woods. They are 
there, all right, for now and then you see their 
tracks; but they certainly are not shipped out 
of the State in quantities, nor have I ever known 
one of our market hunters to waste much time 
after rabbits—except as a blind for quail 
shooting. 
Still later—only a couple of years ago—when 
the sale of game was prohibited altogether, the 
three varieties named were again left outside 
the pale, and the market hunter was content. 
He still had excuse for continuing in his chosen 
avocation; he could be abroad with his gun at 
all seasons without fear of question, and what 
more did he care to ask? Our market gunners 
kill anything in the way of game that comes 
in their way; the gunny sacks shipped to Little 
Rock dealers and supposed to contain squirrels, 
in many instances conceal turkeys, ducks and 
quail. The express companies are taking no 
risk in handling such traffic between points 
within the State, the dealers have their restau¬ 
rants and hotels to supply, and the disinterested 
citizen has no desire to tell tales out of school. 
The offending gunner is his neighbor and 
friend, ana is willing to sell him, on the quiet, 
of course, game of any description and in any 
quantities. Last spring and fall, because of the 
unusual high waters and an abundance of acorns 
in the woods, there were more ducks in the 
White River country than for many years pre¬ 
vious. The professional hunters were all busy, 
and many amateurs as well, although not a 
single duck could be legally marketed. You 
would hear men boasting of the number they 
had killed, but they never told what was done 
with the ducks, and no one cared to ask. Nor 
was there need of inquiring, when the constables 
and justices—men who never hunted—-waxed 
eloquent upon the delicious juiciness of a well- 
roasted mallard. There are a few things the 
average simpleton can be brought to under¬ 
stand without having it knocked into him with 
a club. 
Nothing short of a game warden system will 
ever correct present conditions. It might be 
difficult to find men who would give faithful 
service as wardens, but such have been found 
in other States, and why not in Arkansas. I 
predict that within a few years the attempt will 
be made, but the people at large are not yet 
prepared to advocate such measures. Mean¬ 
while a few of us in my town—Bald Knob— 
aide I by our resident legislator, who was 
pledged to our plans before we would elect 
him, have procured the passage of a law pro¬ 
hibiting the shipment of squirrels beyond the 
county limits. This is a death blow to the local 
market gunners, especially as we intend follow¬ 
ing it up by organizing a game protective club 
with its sole purpose the prosecution of offen¬ 
ders against the game laws. It is likely that 
other counties and towns will follow suit—per¬ 
haps not immediately, but so soon as they are 
made to understand the results that may thus be 
accomplished. 
It is high time that Arkansas should take 
some sane and effective action in the premises. 
The danger to our game is not nor has it ev 
been from the nonresident hunter, and the pre 
ent prohibitive law against him is costing tl 
State many thousands of dollars annually, 
is not alone the loss of the money our visito 
would have put in circulation. The sportsm; 
who can afford to travel hundreds of miles f< 
a bit of hunting and fishing is almost invariab 
a man of large property interests and of ir 
portance in his own community—exactly tl 
sort of individual whom it is well to have vis 
a State possessing vast resources yet to be d 
veloped. It would be easy enough to point 
States that have found profit in a policy exact 
opposed to that adopted by Arkansas; 01 
might go further and say that, in erecting 01 
Chinese wall of exclusion, we have but mo 
strongly verified the prevailing idea that we st 
pay our fiddlers in ’coon skins and discouraj 
strangers from kicking the splinters off 01 
puncheon floors. What we certainly have in 
accomplished thereby is to'materially hinder tl 
extermination of our wild game. There is n< 
one deer to be found to-day where there we: 
twenty when a six months’ close season w; 
first granted them; the wild turkeys are ; 
nearly exterminated that, in all but a few of tl 
lowland counties, it is a notable achievemei 
to have killed one in a season’s hunting; and 
quail are happily still abundant it is becau: 
wing shooting is as yet an unknown art t 
the average country gunner. 
S. D. Barnes. 
Gun License Talk. 
The question of a gun license is agitatir 
portions of British Columbia and here as elsi 
where there seems to be more or less different 
of opinion. On the 3d of March the Nananu 
Gun Club held a meeting at which a resolutio 
was passed protesting against a gun license. 
Vancouver on the other hand is strongly ij 
favor of a gun license provided that farmers 6 
their own land shall not be obliged to have 
license. 
On this subject the Cumberland News saj 
very reasonably: 
“The objection to paying a gun license brinj 
us down to the old original argument. Sha 
we preserve our game so that future generatior 
may enjoy a little of the sport we now do, c 
shall we kill it all off and have done with th 
question? If we have roads, wharves, bridge 
schools and all the other concomitants of a 
effete twentieth century civilization we must pa 
a tax toward them. If we desire police an 
judges to carry out and administer the civil an 
criminal laws of the country we must pay then 
and are taxed accordingly. Then why, if w 
desire to have men to carry out the game law 
should we not pay a tax for that purpose? W 
cannot have our cake and eat it too, and unle; 
we are prepared to pay a mite toward preseri 
ing our game, that sport will soon be lost to 1 
forever.” 
The more the question of the gun license 
discussed the better, for only by threshing 
out can it be thoroughly understood and s 
passed upon by the public. 
The Audubon Society Acts. 
The National Association of Audubon Sc 
cieties has appealed to Governor Hughes an 
the Legislature of New York to do all in the 
power to advance the meritorious game and bir 
bills now in committees. Section 20 of the gair 
law, the association urges, should be amende 
as follows in order to secure the best possih 
protection for the wildfowl of the State: 
“Sec. 20. Wildfowl; close season.—Duck 
geese, brant and swan shall not be taken froi 
January first to September fifteenth, both inch 
sive, [or possessed from March first to Septen 
ber fifteenth, both inclusive] ; or taken in tl 
night from [ail hour after] sunset until [an hoi 
before] sunrise, nor be sold, or offered for sal 
■or possessed from January tenth to Septemln 
fifteenth, both inclusive.” 
It favors Senate bill 35 and Assembly bill 32 
and commends the present law, which permi 
