For More Adequate Game Protection. 
Taunton, Mass., April 2. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: The urgent need of more thorough 
game protection is patent to every thinking 
sportsman in Massachusetts. In a Nery few 
years under the present conditions of indis¬ 
criminate shooting, in season and out, the un¬ 
limited number of birds allowed to be killed by 
each gunner, together with the losses resulting 
from unfavorable weather during the breeding 
season, and from the depredations committed 
by predaceous birds and animals upon this 
species, our ruffed grouse will be exterminated 
or exist only in private preserves. 
Now that the problem of forestry has taken 
such a secure hold in that State, it is a question 
of time only when we shall have better cover 
for our game than ever before. At the expira¬ 
tion of the next twenty years, provided we 
have had careful protection, the enlarged areas 
produced by the reforestation and conservative 
cutting of wood and timber should afford ex¬ 
cellent shooting in proper season in all these 
covers, and once having been established should 
continue to improve rather than deteriorate. 
The money received from the sale of licenses 
to gunners throughout the State and turned into 
the treasury of the Commonwealth, amounted 
to approximately $30,000 for the calendar year 
of 1909, the first year in the history of the sport¬ 
ing annals of Massachusetts requiring the regis¬ 
tration of men who go a-shooting. Now, in 
order to acquire this money and place it at the 
disposal of the Commissioners of Fisheries and 
Game for the purpose for which it was origi¬ 
nally intended, that of protection, a bill has to 
be presented in the Legislature asking for an 
appropriation from this sum of $12,000 for the 
appointing of six or more special salaried depu¬ 
ties having the powers now and hereafter, as 
the regular force of salaried deputies. In other 
words, the money paid by sportsmen for their 
shooting privileges has to be re-legislated to 
the commissioners before they—the sportsmen 
—are able to receive any returns for their out¬ 
lay. This revenue should be devoted to further¬ 
ing the means to the end for which it was sub¬ 
scribed and not for the benefit of any other 
branch of the Department of Fisheries and 
Game, such as the culture of trout, or other 
game or food fishes, or the rearing of the va¬ 
rious kinds of shellfish. 
At a hearing held in the State House on 
March 4 before the Committee on Fisheries and 
Game, it was advocated by several of those 
present to use the entire amount, $30,000, for 
the purpose of protecting, and to have ap¬ 
pointed in each town a deputy commissioner at 
a salary of from $150 to $300 per annum, said 
deputy’s duties to commence about three 
weeks prior to the opening of the trout season, 
to continue through and for a week or two after 
the closing of the fishing, and again resume his 
work by the 15th of September and continue 
through the season of upland shooting and for 
two or three weeks after the game bird season 
has closed. This plan may to some sportsmen 
seem most feasible; to me it does not. In the 
first instance, how many men of the right sort 
would be willing or could afford to work prac¬ 
tically nine months of the year for $300? Sec¬ 
ondly, our open season for the shooting of 
rabbits or hares continues until the first day 
of March, and after the close season on ruffed 
grouse begins there are many gunners, who 
when in pursuit of cottontails, would not hesi¬ 
tate to kill any ruffed grouse flushed within 
shooting distance. All of which goes to sub¬ 
stantiate the fact that we need men who can 
devote all their time to this work. 
There is one and only one legitimate and 
moral purpose for which this fund of $30,000, 
created by the sales of licenses, should be used 
—the protection and propagation of game. It 
is simply fulfilling the just demands of those 
who, individually by the purchase of a license, 
have contributed to this fund—men who have 
not complained because of the new regime, but 
who would have gladly paid a higher price in 
many instances for the sake of improving the 
game conditions in Massachusetts to-day. We 
must consider it only just and proper that the 
money paid by them for the privileges of shoot¬ 
ing should be used for the purpose of provid¬ 
ing them with a return foj their expenditures. 
We have had prior to the year 1909, no in¬ 
come for this purpose other than a portion of 
the regular appropriation made by the State, 
and have had to rest content with whatever pro¬ 
tection and propagation was possible with the 
means provided. 
Now the opportune time is here, we have the 
means to protect and to conserve our remaining 
upland game birds, a matter of as vital import¬ 
ance as the endeavor to artificially rear these 
species. Save from extermination our grandest 
game bird, the ruffed grouse, by the passage of 
laws allowing a small number of birds only to 
be killed by each individual during the season, 
and by making the season a short one; establish 
.sanctuaries throughout the Commonwealth; 
provide food and shelter for the quail in times 
of deep snows; and require the newly appointed 
deputy commissioners to wage a war of ex¬ 
termination against all the furred and feathered 
foes of our game birds. These new wardens 
should devote their entire time to the protec¬ 
tion and to the enforcement of laws relating to 
game and to game fish and should not be re¬ 
quired ordinarily to do work pertaining to other 
branches of the department. There is work 
a-plenty for them to do all through the twelve 
months. 
The subject of sanctuaries is an important 
one. While all the State reservations are in a 
way sanctuaries, too often the natural cover of 
the ruffed grouse, the thick scrubby and briery 
covert, a place of refuge from hawks, is thinned 
out completely in the process of forestry work, 
leaving in its place a clean, open woods floor 
pleasant to look upon and tramp over, but 
offering no protection or concealment to this 
game bird. Sanctuaries should be left undis¬ 
turbed, with all the natural undergrowth save 
for the cutting of roads or trails which are bene¬ 
ficial both to the birds and to their protector. 
By leaving in each State reservation a certain 
section to run riot in undisturbed freedom from 
ax or pruning iron, a refuge would be created 
for the birds in which to take shelter when 
pursued by their winged enemies. 
The following statistics compiled from the 
Massachusetts Year Book, show that we have 
a total of 100 towns and cities in the State not 
including the residence town of each of the 
present salaried deputies, having from 1,000 to 
35,000 assessed poll-tax payers, without adequate 
game protection. The number of square miles 
contained in each district of the twenty-four 
deputies is given, showing the amount of terri¬ 
tory to be patrolled by each man. Cities and 
town containing— 
Over 1000 and less than 2000 assessed poll-tax payers.. 46 
“ oivin “ “ “ Qnnri “ « “ “ is 
“ 2000 “ 
“ “ 3000 
(( tt it 
.. 18 
“ 3000 “ 
“ “ 4000 
tt a tt 
.. 11 
“ 4000 “ 
“ “ 5000 
a a a 
.. 7 
“ 5000 “ 
“ “ 6000 
a a tt 
.. 8 
“ 0000 “ 
“ “ 7000 
tt a tt 
.. 1 
f 7000 1 
“ -i 8000 !- “ 
“ “ 10.000 
a tt tt 
.. 4 
p 9000 j 
“ 10,000 “ 
“ “ 40,000 
tt tt tt 
.. 10 
Total number, exclusive of the residential city or 
town of each of the present deputy fish and 
game commissioners .100 
With the exception of District No. 21, the 
island of Martha’s Vineyard, which from its be¬ 
ing apart from the main land is not to be used 
in relative comparison with the other districts, 
the number of square miles contained is given 
below showing a variation of from 194.7 square 
miles (District No. 8,-. the smallest) to 586.5' 
square miles (District No. 12, the largest). 
District No. Sq. miles. District No. Sq. miles. 
1. 
.457.2 
12. 
.586.5 
0 
,..433.9 
13. 
.466.1 
3.. 
...367.4 
14 . 
...461.7 
4. 
.421.9 
15. 
.505.8 
5. 
16. 
.504.0 
fi. 
.228.7 
17. 
.496.5 
7. 
.234.5 
18. 
.419.1 
8. 
.194.7 
19. 
.408.6 
9.., 
,..350.9 
20. 
.461.5 
10. 
21. 
. 99.8 
11. 
.3C9.4 
Employ permanently six or eight men who 
are both sportsmen and naturalists, and with 
the co-operation in each town of all sincere 
sportsmen they can very soon secure a list of 
the wilful violators and mete out swift punish¬ 
ment to them. By having a free hand in this 
work and by visitations 'to various sections of 
the State their opportunities for the suppres¬ 
sion of evil doers would be greatly increased. 
Our upland game birds should have long ago 
ceased to be pursued with a commercial end in 
view. Nevertheless there are to-day individ :als 
who persist in carrying on a traffic in ruffed 
grouse and woodcock whenever a favorable 
breeding season insures an abundance of these 
birds, using all sorts of underhand methods by 
which to ply their illicit trade. No one has 
either a legal or a moral right to go shooting, 
who is obliged from lack of financial means, to 
sell his game to defray the expenses of his day 
off. Fortunately for the birds, nearly all of the 
old-time market gunners and setters of snares 
